Data capture from rendered documents using handheld device
A portable device having scanning, imaging or other data-capture capability is described. In some cases, the portable device can indicate to the user when enough information has been captured to uniquely identify a source document. In some cases, the portable device calculates timestamps and location-stamps indicating when and where a data capture occurred. In some cases, the portable device is controlled by gestures. In some cases, the portable scanning device has associated billing and content/service subscription information.
1. A portable data capture device, comprising:
control logic;
memory coupled with the control logic for storing data and instructions executable by the control logic;
a user interface;
a data capture element for capturing data from a paper document while the portable data capture device operates in an offline state;
instructions stored in memory that, when executed by the control logic, cause the data capture element to detect that the captured data comprises a number of user-readable words that equals or exceeds a threshold number for identification of the paper document and to cause the user interface to present an indication that enough information has been acquired to identify an electronic version of the paper document; and
instructions stored in memory that, when executed by the control logic, cause the portable data capture device to automatically submit at least a portion of the captured text to a search engine in response to the portable data capture device transitioning from the offline state to an online state.
2. A portable device having scanning capability, the portable device comprising:
an image capture device for acquiring images;
a memory device for storing the images captured by the image capture device and a threshold number for identification of a document;
a processor operable to execute program instructions to detect that an image captured by the image capture device comprises a number of user-readable words that equals or exceeds the threshold number for identification of a document;
a communications interface for transmitting information to external devices and receiving information from external devices; and
a user interface operable to indicate to a user that enough information has been acquired to identify a source document of the captured image, wherein the processor instructs the user interface to provide the indication in response to the processor detecting that the image captured by the image capture device comprises a number of user-readable words that equals or exceeds the threshold number for identification of a document.
3. The portable device of claim 2 further comprising image compression logic for compressing the images captured by the image capture device.
4. The portable device of claim 2 further comprising an internal power supply.
5. The portable device of claim 4 further comprising power management logic for monitoring power consumption of the portable device and prolonging operational life of the internal power supply.
6. The portable device of claim 2 further comprising an illumination source.
7. The portable device of claim 2 further comprising a location module.
8. The portable device of claim 7 in which the location module comprises at least one location determination capability selected from the group of GPS, A-GPS, DGPS, triangulation, monitoring of local transceiver pilot signals, TDOA, EOTD, and angle of arrival.
9. A portable scanner, comprising:
a processor;
a memory device operatively connected with the processor;
a user interface; and
an image capture device;
wherein the memory device contains program instructions, a first threshold that identifies a minimum number of characters per word, and a second threshold that identifies a minimum number of user-readable words, and
wherein the program instructions comprise instructions executable by the processor to determine that an image captured via the image capture device comprises a number of user-readable words that equals or exceeds the second threshold, each of those user-readable words having a number of characters that equals or exceeds the first threshold, and to responsively cause the user interface to provide an indication that a sufficient number of user-readable words have been detected within the captured image to uniquely identify a document comprising the user-readable words contained within the captured image.
10. The portable scanner of claim 9 in which the memory is a subscriber identity module.
11. The portable scanner of claim 9 in which the memory is a smart card.
12. A method of informing a user that sufficient data has been scanned from a document to identify the document, the method comprising:
scanning the document, via a portable device, to acquire a scanned image;
executing program instructions, stored in memory of the portable device, to detect user-readable words within the scanned image and to count a number of words the portable device detected within the scanned image;
comparing the number of words the portable device detected within the scanned image to a threshold number for identifying a document; and
indicating, via a user interface of the portable device, that a sufficient number of user-readable words have been detected within the scanned image to identify the document.
13. The method of claim 12 in which the indicating is a visual signal discernible by a user of the portable scanning device.
14. The method of claim 12 in which the threshold number for identifying a document is within the range of four to ten words.
15. The method of claim 12 in which the threshold number is less than 10 words.
16. The method of claim 12 , wherein the words in the count of the number of words the portable device detected within the scanned image only include words that comprise more than three characters.