Search engines and systems with handheld document data capture devices
View Patent ↗Embodiments of the disclosed innovations provide systems and methods for locating data associated with rendered documents. Some embodiments support the use of a handheld document data capture device.
1. A method performed by a mobile device, the method comprising:
receiving an image optically captured from a textual portion of a rendered document;
determining multiple text strings from the image;
generating multiple search queries, each search query comprising a respective one of the multiple text strings;
sending the multiple search queries to an Internet search engine at a location remote from the mobile device;
receiving, at the mobile device and from the Internet search engine, multiple respective sets of search results determined by the search engine in response to the respective search queries;
determining from the multiple respective sets of search results a first search result that most likely identifies an electronic content counterpart of the rendered document; and
providing, for output, the first search result.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the search results include an indication of electronic content corresponding to the rendered document.
3. The method of claim 1 ,
wherein the search results include one or more actions associated with the rendered document, and
wherein displaying the first search result comprises displaying a menu of the one or more actions associated with the rendered document.
4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the one or more actions include at least one action selected from the group consisting of: purchasing a product, reviewing a product, linking to an associated web site, retrieving at least a portion of an electronic counterpart to the rendered document, associating annotations with the rendered document, and retrieving a translation of an electronic counterpart to the rendered document.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the search results include markup data associated with an electronic counterpart to the rendered document, and wherein the method further comprises:
optically capturing a portion of the rendered document;
determining that the captured portion of the rendered document corresponds to a portion of the electronic counterpart to the rendered document that is associated with the markup data; and
performing one or more functions that are associated with the markup data.
6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the markup data includes an advertisement for presentation in response to capturing the portion of the rendered document.
7. The method of claim 5 , wherein the markup data includes a multimedia annotation for presentation in response to capturing the portion of the rendered document.
8. The method of claim 5 , further comprising storing the markup data in a memory of the mobile device.
9. A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored therein instructions, that when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform functions comprising:
receiving an image optically captured from a portion of a rendered document, wherein the portion at least partially includes text;
determining multiple text strings from the image;
generating multiple search queries, each search query comprising a respective one of the multiple text strings;
sending the multiple search queries to an Internet search engine at a location remote from the computing device;
receiving, at the computing device and from the Internet search engine, multiple respective sets of search results determined by the search engine in response to the respective search queries;
determining from the multiple respective sets of search results a first search result that most likely identifies an electronic content counterpart of the rendered document; and
providing, for output, the first search result.
10. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 9 , wherein the search results include an indication of electronic content corresponding to the rendered document.
11. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 9 , wherein the search results include one or more actions associated with the rendered document, and
wherein displaying the first search result comprises displaying a menu of the one or more actions associated with the rendered document.
12. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11 , wherein the one or more actions include at least one action selected from the group consisting of: purchasing a product, reviewing a product, linking to an associated web site, retrieving at least a portion of an electronic counterpart to the rendered document, associating annotations with the rendered document, and retrieving a translation of an electronic counterpart to the rendered document.
13. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 9 , wherein the search results include markup data associated with an electronic counterpart to the rendered document, and wherein the functions further comprise:
optically capturing a portion of the rendered document;
determining that the captured portion of the rendered document corresponds to a portion of the electronic counterpart to the rendered document that is associated with the markup data; and
performing one or more functions that are associated with the markup data.
14. A system in a mobile device, the system comprising:
a capture component configured to optically capture text of a rendered document;
an optical character recognition component configured to determine multiple text strings that correspond to the captured text;
a query generation component configured to a generate multiple search queries, each search query comprising a respective one of the multiple text strings;
a query transmission component configured to transmit the generated multiple search queries to an Internet search engine at a location remote from the mobile device;
a results reception component configured to receive multiple respective sets of search results matching the generated respective search queries, wherein the search results comprise a first search result that most likely identifies an electronic content counterpart of the rendered document; and
a display output component configured to provide output data for display of at least the first search result.
15. The system of claim 14 , wherein the search results include an indication of electronic content corresponding to the rendered document.
16. The system of claim 14 , wherein the search results include one or more actions associated with the rendered document.
17. The system of claim 16 , wherein the output data includes data for providing display of a menu of the one or more actions associated with the rendered document.