Abstract: A method for exchanging information in a shared interactive environment, comprising selecting a first physical device in a first live video image wherein the first physical device has information associated with it, causing the information to be transferred to a second physical device in a second live video image wherein the transfer is brought about by manipulating a visual representation of the information, wherein the manipulation includes interacting with the first live video image and the second live video image, wherein the first physical device and the second physical device are part of the shared interactive environment, and wherein the first physical device and the second physical device are not the same.

Abstract: A gas turbine engine has a compressor assembly and a turbine assembly rotationally mounted on a shaft, the turbine assembly being driven by hot gases discharged from a combustion chamber disposed between the compressor and turbine assemblies, the compressor having a centrifugal impeller for pressurizing and impelling air into the combustion chamber. The engine also includes an impeller shroud covering the bladed portion of the centrifugal impeller, the impeller shroud having a support bracket having a thin and curved load-isolating profile for supporting a strut that secures the impeller shroud to a case of the engine.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a method to make effective use of display space. In an embodiment of the invention, given a heterogeneous set of images along with metadata or nearby text, similar images are recursively clustered into a k-tree using the k-means algorithm. In an embodiment of the invention, the invention is particularly useful for showing image search results on small mobile devices.

Abstract: A system and method to identify pictures in documents. An image representing a page of a document is received. The image is analyzed to identify text objects in the page. A masked image is generated by masking out regions of the image including the text objects in the page. Groups of pixels in the masked image are identified, wherein a respective group of pixels corresponds to at least one picture in the page. When there is one or more groups of pixels, regions for pictures are identified based on the one or more groups of pixels. Metadata tags for the pictures are stored, wherein a respective metadata tag for a respective picture includes information about a respective bounding box for the respective picture.

Abstract: Generation of video game photominoes is provided by constructing polyomino game pieces from the salient parts of digital photographic images. Further, generation of jigsaw puzzle photominoes is provided by constructing polyomino puzzle pieces from the salient parts of digital photographic images.

Abstract: An algorithm for finding regions of interest (ROI) in synthetic images based on an information driven approach in which sub-blocks of a set of synthetic image are analyzed for information content or compressibility based on textural and color features. A DCT may be used to analyze the textural features of a set of images and a color histogram may be used to analyze the color features of the set of images. Sub-blocks of low compressibility are grouped into ROIs using a type of morphological technique. Unlike other algorithms that are geared for highly specific types of ROI (e.g. OCR text detection), the method of the present invention is generally applicable to arbitrary synthetic images. The present invention can be used with several other image applications, including Stained-Glass collages presentations.

Abstract: User behavior while interacting with one or more first representations of digital content can be monitored. Interaction information can be determined by monitoring the user behavior while interacting. Interaction information can include information identifying interaction areas of the first representation, degree of interaction information, and sequence of interaction information. The interaction information can be maintained and used to deform a second representation of digital content. The first and second representations can be of the same or different digital content.

Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention enable an image based controller to control and manipulate objects with simple point-and-capture operations via images captured by a camera enhanced mobile device. Powered by this technology, a user is able to complete many complicated control tasks via guided control of objects without utilizing laser pointers, IR transmitters, mini-projectors, or bar code tagging and/or customized wall paper are not needed for the environment control. This description is not intended to be a complete description of, or limit the scope of, the invention. Other features, aspects, and objects of the invention can be obtained from a review of the specification, the figures, and the claims.

Abstract: A semi-automatic system for scanning a document includes an image capture device, such as a digital or video camera, which records a sequence of images while a user waves a document in front of the device. The user can present multiple pages of a document to the image capture device, after which the total sequence of images are processed to identify a clear image of each page from the sequence of images. The system further includes image processing techniques to correct for motion blurring, acceleration and perspective errors. The system is capable of processing any size or shape of document without destroying the organization or format of the original.

Abstract: Techniques are provided for determining relevant information from a document based on document structure. A document is selected and structural elements within the document having a dominance relationship are determined. A first location within the document is selected. The structural element surrounding the first location is determined and the surrounding and non-surrounding structural elements are characterized. Additional documents are associated with the first location in the surrounding structural element based on the surrounding structural element characterization and the non-surrounding structural element characterization. Techniques for dynamically determining annotations for images based on document structure are also provided.

Abstract: Systems and methods for bookmarking multimedia documents include displaying multiple multimedia streams, creating bookmarks comprising time signatures and snapshots of each multimedia stream based upon single action cues from a user, associating snapshots with portions of multimedia streams, displaying bookmarks and displaying portions of a multimedia stream associated with selected snapshots.

Abstract: An algorithm for finding regions of interest (ROI) in images and photos based on an information driven approach in which sub-blocks of an image are analyzed for information content or compressibility based on the discrete cosine transform. The sub-blocks of low compressibility are grouped into ROIs using a morphological technique. Unlike other algorithms that are geared for highly specific types of ROI (e.g. face detection), the method of the present invention is generally applicable to arbitrary images and photos. A center-weighted variation of the algorithm can produce better results for certain photo applications. The algorithm can be used with several other image applications, including Stained-Glass collages and Pan-and-Scan presentations.

Abstract: Video recordings of meetings and scanned paper documents are natural digital documents that come out of a meeting. These can be placed on the Internet for easy access, with links generated between them by matching scanned documents to a segment of the video referencing the scanned document. Furthermore, annotations made on the paper documents during the meeting can be extracted and used as indexes to the video. An orthonormal transform, such as a Digital Cosine Transform (DCT) is used to compare scanned documents to video frames.

Abstract: In one embodiment, the present invention extracts video regions of interest from one or more videos and generates a highly condensed visual summary of the videos. The video regions of interest are extracted based on to energy, movement, face or other object detection methods, associated data or external input, or some other feature of the video. In another embodiment, the present invention extracts regions of interest from images and generates highly condensed visual summaries of the images. The highly condensed visual summary is generated by laying out germs on a canvas and then filling the spaces between the germs. The result is a visual summary that resembles a stained glass window having cells of varying shape. The germs may be laid out by temporal order, color histogram, similarity, according to a desired pattern, size, or some other manner. The people, objects and other visual content in the germs appear larger and become easier to see.

Abstract: A multi-player solitaire or multi-player video game that generates tags for digital images. A tabletop or computer screen video game provides an enjoyable way for collocated players to view, share, talk about and, in the process tag photos. The video games can generate valuable text labels for photos with multiple levels of specificity and named entities. These labels can be used to help manage and index collections of photos for browsing and retrieval.

Abstract: Multiple users access a collaborative data-sharing system during a data-sharing event. Each user can establish the level of sharing to be allowed with each other user and filtering criteria for filtering the data before it is provided to the other users. Data can be extracted from a number of different sources, including data input by other users and/or previously created information sources. For example, slides from a presentation on a similar topic may be identified and included by a user as a potential source of information to be used by other users. Shared data can be displayed on devices used by users to communicate with the collaborative data-sharing system. A user can selected data provided by the collaborative data-sharing system, which was obtained from the data input by other users and/or from the identified additional data sources and added to that user's data as data entered by that user.

Abstract: In an embodiment of the invention, an electronic document (e-document) can be searched and found by capturing an image of the printed document. Instead of typing in a file name or searching through multiple directories, the user simply takes a picture of the document with a camera and the system uses the document image to locate the e-document. In an alternative embodiment of the invention, an image of a printed document can be useful for remote document sharing. In various embodiments of the invention, sharing an image of a printed document can be used to email a high quality paper document, send a high quality fax, or open a document to a page containing an annotation. Through co-design of the feature extraction and search algorithm in the system, the image feature detection robustness and search speed are improved at the same time.

Abstract: Recorded video is accessed from printed notes or summaries derived from the video. Summaries may be created automatically by analyzing the recorded video, and annotations are made by a user on a device for note-taking with digital ink and video. The notes and/or summaries are printed along with data glyphs that provide time based indexes or offsets into the recorded video. The indexes or offsets are retrieved by scanning the glyph on the printout. The glyph information can be embedded in the printouts in many ways. One method is to associate block glyphs with annotations or images on the printed pages. Another method is to provide an address carpet in an annotated timeline. Yet another method is to provide a two-dimensional address carpet with X-Y position mapped to time which can be used to provide selected access to the video. The accessed video may be played back on the note-taking device on a pen computer, or on a summary interface on a Web browser-type device.

Abstract: In one embodiment, the present invention extracts video regions of interest from one or more videos and generates a highly condensed visual summary of the videos. The video regions of interest are extracted based on to energy, movement, face or other object detection methods, associated data or external input, or some other feature of the video. In another embodiment, the present invention extracts regions of interest from images and generates highly condensed visual summaries of the images. The highly condensed visual summary is generated by laying out germs on a canvas and then filling the spaces between the germs. The result is a visual summary that resembles a stained glass window having cells of varying shape. The germs may be laid out by temporal order, color histogram, similarity, according to a desired pattern, size, or some other manner. The people, objects and other visual content in the germs appear larger and become easier to see.

Abstract: The present invention relates to techniques for supporting organizational, labeling and retrieval tasks on an electronic tabletop, wall or large display. In various embodiments of the invention, a dynamic visualization is used to show a current working set of documents. In an embodiment of the invention, the rest of the collection is represented in the background as small dots. In an embodiment of the invention, when a user moves objects into groups or creates a label, relevant objects in the background are automatically retrieved and moved into the foreground. In an embodiment of the invention, retrieved objects along with relevant objects in the current set are highlighted and decorated with arrows pointing to their relevant groups. In an embodiment of the invention, the movement is animated to provide user feedback when objects must travel long distances on a large display.