METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR CAPTURING HIGH RESOLUTION CONTENT FROM APPLICATIONS

1 . A method of capturing information from an application at a portable electronic device, the method comprising:

receiving an OS-level screen-capture trigger from a user interface of the portable electronic device;

in response to the OS-level screen-capture trigger:

reporting to an active application running on the portable electronic device a virtual resolution, which is higher than a native resolution available on a display of the portable electronic device;

receiving high-resolution content from the active application, the high-resolution content formatted by the active application based on the virtual resolution;

storing the high-resolution content at the portable electronic device; and,

reporting the native resolution to the active application.

2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

subsequent to the OS-level screen-capture trigger, receiving native-resolution content from the active application, formatted based on the native resolution; and

storing the native-resolution content at the portable electronic device.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the native-resolution content is received prior to reporting the virtual resolution.

4 . The method of claim 2 , further comprising comparing the high-resolution content to the native-resolution content and, based on the comparison, discarding the high-resolution content if the high-resolution content does not contain more useful information than the native-resolution content, and retaining the high-resolution content if the high-resolution content does contain more useful information than the native-resolution content.

5 . The method of claim 4 , wherein comparing comprises comparing a file size of the high-resolution content to a file size of the native-resolution content.

6 . The method of claim 4 , wherein comparing comprises comparing an image size of the high-resolution content to an image size of the native-resolution content.

7 . The method of claim 4 , wherein comparing comprises comparing a number of recognized text characters in the high-resolution content to a number of recognized text characters in the native-resolution content.

8 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

identifying at least one feature of the high-resolution content; and

cropping the high-resolution content based on the at least one identified feature.

9 . The method of claim 8 , wherein identifying comprises performing character recognition on the high-resolution content.

10 . The method of claim 8 , wherein identifying comprises receiving layout information from a layout manager of the active application.

11 . The method of claim 8 , wherein identifying comprises identifying a table in the high-resolution content.

12 . The method of claim 8 , wherein identifying comprises identifying a border in the high-resolution content and cropping comprises cropping material outside of the border.

13 . The method of claim 8 , wherein identifying comprises identifying an area containing text in the high-resolution content and cropping comprises cropping material outside of the area containing text.

14 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising performing character recognition on an image of the high-resolution content.

15 . The method of claim 1 , wherein reporting the virtual resolution, receiving the high-resolution content, storing the high-resolution content, and reporting the native resolution all occur before a refresh of the display.

16 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising logging information related to capturing the high-resolution content.

17 . The method of claim 16 , wherein logging comprises storing a time required for capturing the high-resolution content.

18 . The method of claim 16 , wherein logging comprises storing an indication of an amount of useful information in the high-resolution content.

19 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising setting the virtual resolution based on previously logged information.

20 . The method of claim 19 wherein the previously logged information comprises a time required for capturing high-resolution content from the active application, and wherein setting the virtual resolution comprises adjusting a previously used virtual resolution based on the time required for capturing high-resolution content from the active application.

21 . The method of claim 19 wherein the previously logged information comprises an indication of an amount of useful information in previously-captured high-resolution content, and wherein setting the virtual resolution comprises adjusting a previously used virtual resolution based on the indication of the amount of useful information in previously-captured high-resolution content.

22 . A portable electronic device comprising a display, a user interface and at least one processor operably connected to the display and the user interface, and configured to:

receive an OS-level screen-capture trigger from the user interface;

in response to the OS-level screen-capture trigger:

report to an active application running on the portable electronic device a virtual resolution, which is higher than a native resolution available on the display of the portable electronic device;

receive high-resolution content from the active application, the high-resolution content formatted by the active application based on the virtual resolution;

store the high-resolution content at the portable electronic device; and,

report the native resolution to the active application.