Establishing an interactive environment for rendered documents
A system for identifying an electronic counterpart for a rendered document is described. The system receives an indication of a text capture operation performed from a rendered document. The indication identifies a text sequence captured as part of the text capture operation, the identified text sequence comprising fewer than nine words. In response to receiving the indication, the system uniquely identifies an electronic document from which the rendered document was rendered.
1 . A method in a computing system for identifying an electronic counterpart for a rendered document, comprising:
receiving an indication of a text capture operation performed from a rendered document, the indication identifying a text sequence captured as part of the text capture operation, the identified text sequence comprising fewer than nine words; and
in response to receiving the indication, uniquely identifying an electronic document from which the rendered document was rendered among a corpus of at least 100,000 electronic documents.
2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising retrieving a copy of the identified electronic document.
3 . The method of claim 1 wherein the electronic document is identified using an index on the corpus of electronic documents.
4 . A method in a computing system for processing a text capture operation, comprising:
receiving an indication of a text capture operation performed from a rendered document by a distinguished user, the indication specifying a text sequence captured as part of the text capture operation;
in response to receiving indication:
identifying in the specified text sequence a reference to a distinguished product or service; and
offering to the distinguished user commercial information relating to the established product or service.
5 . The method of claim 4 wherein the offered commercial information is marketing materials.
6 . The method of claim 4 wherein the offered commercial information is sales materials.
7 . The method of claim 4 wherein the offered commercial information is an opportunity to purchase the distinguished product or service.
8 . A method in a computing system for regulating access to supplemental electronic materials relating to a distinguished rendered document, comprising:
receiving an indication of a text capture operation performed from the rendered document by a distinguished user, the indication specifying a text sequence captured as part of the text capture operation;
using the specified text sequence to identify the distinguished rendered document;
identifying supplemental electronic materials relating to the identified distinct rendered document;
determining that a request to access the identified supplemental electronic materials relating to the identified distinct rendered document is implicit in the received indication;
retrieving set of access rules for the supplemental electronic materials relating to the distinguished document;
applying the retrieved access rules to the implicit access request to determine a resolution of the implicit access request; and
enforcing the determined resolution.
9 . The method of claim 8 wherein the distinguished user is registered, and wherein the determined resolution is to permit full access.
10 . The method of claim 8 wherein the indication further uniquely identifies the copy of the rendered document in which the text capture operation, and wherein the identified copy is registered, and wherein the determined resolution is to permit full access.
11 . The method of claim 8 wherein the distinguished user is unregistered, and wherein the determined resolution is to permit partial access.
12 . The method of claim 8 wherein the distinguished user is unregistered, and wherein the determined resolution is to deny access.
13 . The method of claim 8 wherein the indication further uniquely identifies the copy of the rendered document in which the text capture operation, and wherein the identified copy is unregistered, and wherein the determined resolution is to permit partial access.
14 . The method of claim 8 wherein the indication further uniquely identifies the copy of the rendered document in which the text capture operation, and wherein the identified copy is unregistered, and wherein the determined resolution is to deny access.
15 . The method of claim 8 wherein the distinguished user is unregistered, and wherein the determined resolution is to permit full access after requiring the distinguished user to pay a registration fee.
16 . The method of claim 8 wherein the indication further uniquely identifies the copy of the rendered document in which the text capture operation, and wherein the identified copy is unregistered, and wherein the determined resolution is to permit full access after requiring the distinguished user to pay a registration fee.
17 . The method of claim 8 wherein the distinguished user's registration has expired, and wherein the determined resolution is to permit full access after requiring the distinguished user to pay a registration renewal fee.
18 . The method of claim 8 wherein the indication further uniquely identifies the copy of the rendered document in which the text capture operation, and wherein the registration for the identified copy has expired, and wherein the determined resolution is to permit full access after requiring the distinguished user to pay a registration renewal fee.
19 . A method in a computing system for managing escrow for an electronic document, comprising:
receiving an indication of a text capture operation performed from a rendered document by distinguished user, the indication identifying a text sequence captured as part of the text capture operation;
in response to receiving the indication:
uniquely identifying an electronic document from which the rendered document was rendered;
obtaining an authorized copy of the identified electronic document; and
storing the obtained copy of the identified electronic document for access by the distinguished user.
20 . The method of claim 19 , further comprising charging the distinguished user for obtaining a first copy of the identified electronic document.
21 . The method of claim 19 , further comprising charging the distinguished user for storing the obtained copy of the identified electronic document.
22 . The method of claim 19 , further comprising maintaining a reference count of the number of users for whom the obtained copy of the identified electronic document is stored.
23 . The method of claim 22 , further comprising consulting the maintained reference count before deleting the stored copy of the identified electronic document.
24 . The method of claim 22 , further comprising replacing the stored copy of the identified electronic document with a copy of a revised version of the identified electronic document.
25 . A method in a computing system for publishing a document, comprising:
publishing a first version of a distinguished document;
receiving indications of a plurality of text captures from rendered copies of the first version of the distinguished document;
revising the first version of the distinguished document in a manner responsive to the received indications to obtain a second version of the distinguished document; and
publishing the first version of the distinguished document.
26 . A method in a computing system for advertising in connection with a rendered document, comprising:
receiving an indication of a text capture operation performed from a rendered document by distinguished user, the indication specifying a text sequence captured as part of the text capture operation;
comparing text contained by the specified text sequence to a set of registered advertising terms;
selecting a registered advertising term contained by the specified text sequence; and
presenting to the distinguished user an advertising message specified by a selected sponsor of the selected registered advertising term.
27 . The method of claim 26 , further comprising collecting an advertising fee from the selected sponsor.
28 . The method of claim 26 , further comprising paying a referral fee to a publisher of the rendered document.
29 . The method of claim 26 , further comprising paying a referral fee to an author of the rendered document.