Optical character recognition technique for protected viewing of digital files

1. A computer implemented method for unlocking digital content embodied in digital readable form on a digital media carrier, the method comprises:

storing by a computer, an association of a printed publication with digital content;

storing, by the computer, an arrangement of text from the associated physical copy of the printed publication;

selecting randomly by the computer a page number of the printed publication;

producing by the computer a test that includes the randomly selected page number of the printed publication to scan;

changing by the computer the randomly selected page number of the test with each attempt at unlocking the digital content;

receiving by the computer a request to unlock the digital content;

transmitting, by the computer, the test;

receiving, by the computer, an image;

determining by the computer whether the image corresponds to the randomly selected page of the printed publication, by:

applying optical character recognition to the received image to produce data that represents an arrangement of text in the image; and

comparing the produced data representing the arrangement of text to the stored version of the arrangement;

determining whether the received image corresponds to the randomly selected page of the printed publication, and based on the determination that the received image corresponds to the randomly selected page, unlock the digital content.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the optical character recognition produces a text representation of the image and comparing compares the text representation to a stored version of the text.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein a digital camera or a web cam is used to scan the page and evaluating comprises

detecting a pattern of color in the data from the digital camera or web cam; and

determining whether the image corresponds to the randomly selected page of the digital content.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein a scanner is used to scan the page.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein unlocking the digital content provides a text based searchable file.

6. The method of claim 2 further comprises:

generating by the computer a signature from the text representation of the image;

comparing by the computer the generated signature to a stored signature.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the digital content is a book stored on a digital storage media and the physical copy of the digital media is a printed copy of the book.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein unlocking the digital content provides text.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising:

apply speech synthesis that converts the text from the digital content into speech that is read aloud to the user.

10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising:

displaying a representation of a portion of the digital media on a display;

applying a highlighting indicia to an item in the displayed portion of the printed content, in synchronization with reading the item to the user.

11. The method of claim 8 wherein the digital content includes a book stored in a digital representation on the digital storage media and the printed publication of the digital media is a printed copy of the book.

12. The method of claim 8 wherein displaying displays an image representation from the digital media, and the method further comprises:

applying speech synthesis that converts the digital media into speech that is read aloud to the user, while

applying a highlighting indicia to an item in the image representation in synchronization with reading the text.

13. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

displaying a representation of a portion of the digital media on a display;

using speech synthesis that converts text corresponding to the digital media into speech that is read aloud to the user, while

applying a highlighting indicia to an item in the displayed portion in synchronization with text corresponding to the item being read.

14. A computer readable hardware storage device that tangibly stores a computer program product, the computer program product that unlocks digital content embodied in digital readable form on a digital media carrier, the computer program product comprising instructions when executed by the computer causing the computer to execute the instructions for:

storing an association of a printed publication with digital content;

storing an arrangement of text from the associated physical copy of the printed publication;

randomly selecting a page number of the printed publication;

producing a test that includes the randomly selected page number of the printed publication to scan;

changing the randomly selected page number of the test with each attempt at unlocking the digital content;

receiving a request to unlock the digital content;

transmitting the test;

receiving an image;

determining whether the image corresponds to the randomly selected page of the printed publication;

applying optical character recognition to the received image to produce data that represents an arrangement of text in the image; and

comparing the produced data representing the arrangement of text to the stored version of the arrangement;

determining whether the received image corresponds to the randomly selected page of the printed publication; and based on the determination that the received image corresponds to the randomly selected page, unlock the digital content.

15. The computer readable hardware storage device of claim 14 wherein the

optical character recognition produces a text representation of the image and instructions for comparing, compare the text representation to a stored version of the text to determine that the scanned image corresponds to the selected page of the digital content.

16. The computer readable hardware storage device of claim 14 wherein

optical character recognition produces data that represents an arrangement of features in the image and instructions for comparing, compare the data representing the arrangement of features to a stored version of the arrangement to determine that the image corresponds to the randomly selected page.

17. The computer readable hardware storage device of claim 14 wherein the image is a scanned image and a digital camera or a web cam is used to scan the page and further comprises instructions for:

detecting a pattern of color in the data from the digital camera or web cam; and

determining whether the scanned image corresponds to the randomly selected page.

18. The computer readable hardware storage device of claim 14 wherein the unlocked digital content is a text based searchable file.

19. The computer readable hardware storage device of claim 15 further comprises instructions for:

generating a signature that is compared by the compare instructions to a signature generated from the digital media; and

determining whether the user had the physical copy of the content.

20. The computer readable hardware storage device of claim 14 wherein the unlocked digital content is text.

21. The computer readable hardware storage device of claim 20 further comprising instructions for:

applying speech synthesis that converts the text from the digital content into speech that is read aloud to the user.

22. The computer readable hardware storage device of claim 20 further comprising instructions for:

displaying a representation of a portion of the printed copy of the digital content on a display;

applying a highlighting indicia to an item in the displayed portion of the printed content, in synchronization with reading the item to the user.

23. The computer readable hardware storage device of claim 14 wherein the digital content includes a book stored in a digital representation on the digital storage media and the physical copy of the digital media is a printed copy of a book.

24. The computer readable hardware storage device of claim 22 wherein a display displays an image representation from the digital media, and the computer program product further comprises instructions for:

applying speech synthesis that converts the digital media into speech that is read aloud to the user, while

applying a highlighting indicia to an item in the image representation in synchronization with reading the text.

25. The computer program product of claim 14 , further comprising instructions for:

displaying a representation of a portion of the digital media on a display;

applying speech synthesis that converts text corresponding to the digital media into speech that is read aloud to the user, while

applying a highlighting indicia to an item in the displayed portion in synchronization with text corresponding to the item being read.

26. An apparatus comprising:

a computing processing device; and

a computer readable hardware storage device storing a computer program product for unlocking digital content embodied in digital readable form on a digital media carrier, the computer program product comprises instructions when executed by the computing device causing the computing device to execute the instructions for:

storing an association of a printed publication with digital content;

storing an arrangement of text from the associated physical copy of the printed publication;

randomly selecting a page number of the printed publication;

producing a test that includes the randomly selected page number of the printed publication to scan;

changing the randomly selected page number of the test with each attempt at unlocking the digital content;

receiving a request to unlock the digital content;

transmitting the test;

receiving an image;

determining whether the image corresponds to the randomly selected page of the printed publication;

applying optical character recognition to the received image to produce data that represents an arrangement of text in the received image; and

comparing the produced data representing the arrangement of text to the stored version of the arrangement;

determining whether the received image corresponds to the randomly selected page and based on the determination that the received image corresponds to the selected page unlock the digital content.

27. The apparatus of claim 26 wherein the

optical character recognition produces a text representation of the scanned image and instructions for comparing, compare the text representation to a stored version of the text to determine that the scanned image corresponds to the selected page of the digital content.

28. The apparatus of claim 26 wherein the

optical character recognition produces data that represents an arrangement of features in the scanned image and instructions for comparing, compare the data representing the arrangement of features to a stored version of the arrangement to determine that the received image corresponds to the selected page of the digital content.

29. The apparatus of claim 26 , wherein the image is a scanned image and the apparatus further comprises:

a digital camera or a web cam to produce the scanned image of the page and further comprises instructions for:

detecting a pattern of color in the data from the digital camera or web cam; and

determining whether the scanned image corresponds to the selected page of the digital content.

30. The apparatus of claim 26 wherein the unlocked digital content is a text based searchable file.

31. The apparatus of claim 26 wherein the computer program product further comprises instructions for:

applying speech synthesis that converts the text from the digital content into speech that is read aloud to the user.

32. The apparatus of claim 26 wherein the computer program product further comprises instructions for:

displaying a representation of a portion of the printed copy of the digital media on a display;

applying a highlighting indicia to an item in the displayed portion of the representation of the printed copy, in synchronization with reading the item to the user.

33. The apparatus of claim 26 , wherein displaying, displays an image representation from the digital media, and the computer program product further comprises instructions for:

applying speech synthesis that converts the digital media into speech that is read aloud to the user, while

applying a highlighting indicia to an item in the image representation in synchronization with reading the text.