DISPLAY CAPTURE SYSTEM

SYSTEME DE SAISIE D'AFFICHAGE

English Abstract

A computer system captures information from a television
display digital signal. The digital signal is subjected
to optical character recognition to allow the computer system
to recognize characters displayed on that screen. The
character information is then scanned for desired patterns
associated with contact information. Once the contact
information has been isolated, it may be stored or an immediate
contact may be automatically implemented.

French Abstract

La présente invention concerne un système informatique pouvant saisir des informations à partir d'un signal numérique d'affichage sur un écran de télévision. Ce signal numérique est soumis à une reconnaissance optique de caractères qui permet au système informatique de reconnaître les caractères affichés sur l'écran. La lecture optique d'informations relatives aux caractères doit permettre de déterminer les schémas requis en rapport avec l'information pour contact. Une fois isolée, l'information pour contact peut être stockée, ou bien un contact peut être établi immédiatement.

Claims

5
The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive property or privilege
is
claimed are defined as follows:
1. A method for obtaining address information from an image signal using a
computer, comprising:
obtaining a digital representation of a display image;
recognizing characters in said image; and
locating address information in said characters to enable an entity to be
contacted using said address information.
2. The method of claim 1 including locating a telephone number in said
characters
and automatically dialing said telephone number.
3. The method of claim 1 including locating an Internet address in said
characters
and automatically contacting said Internet address.
4. The method of claim 1 including storing said address information on the
computer.
5. The method of claim 1 including providing the address information to the
user,
allowing the user to alter the address information and revising the address
information
according to information from the user.
6. The method of claim 1 including recognizing a user command, and upon
receipt
of the user command obtaining a digital representation of the display image
being
displayed at the time the user command is received.
7. The method of claim 1 wherein said address information includes a telephone
number.
8. The method of claim 1 wherein said address information includes an Internet
address.

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9. The method of claim 1 including automatically adding said address
information
to a software address directory.
10. The method of claim 1 wherein the obtaining step includes obtaining a
digital
representation of a television display image.
11. The method of claim 1 wherein the obtaining step includes obtaining a
digital
representation of a computer display image in graphics mode.
12. A computer system comprising:
a processor;
memory coupled to said processor;
an input device coupled to said processor;
a television receiver coupled to said processor to display television
programs;
and
an optical character recognition device coupled to the television receiver to
scan
signal information for generating a television picture and to identify contact
information in said signal information.
13. The system of claim 12 including a telephone dialer coupled to said
processor.
14. The system of claim 12 including a modem coupled to said processor.

Description

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Display Capture System
Background
This invention relates generally to computers, and in particular embodiments
to
capturing information from television or computer displays.
Personal computers are now moving into the arena previously occupied by
television
receivers. The so-called set top personal computers interact with television
receivers to
provide advanced programming functions, digital television and other functions
normally
associated with personal computers, such as Internet access and games. Thus,
users of the set
top personal computers may have at their disposal both a television capability
and the
capability normally associated with the personal computer. The set top
personal computers
use the television screen as the display both for the computer system and the
television
receiver.
Computers may also display television pictures on a computer display or
monitor. A
tuner card in the computer acts as a television receiver so that a television
program may be
viewed on a computer monitor.
Contact information is commonly displayed in television programming,
particularly in
television advertising. Many viewers have diff culty in recording contact
information
because, by the time they locate pencil and paper, the information is no
longer displayed.
Thus, advertisers may lose important opportunities and viewers may miss
desirable
information.
Similarly, some contact information may be displayed as a graphical image (ie.
in
graphics rather than text mode) on an Internet web page. This may be the case
where
elaborate fonts or graphical displays are desired, for example with
trademarks.
It would be desirable to enhance the ability of a user of a computer system to
retain
non-textual information from a display.
Sub
In accordance with one aspect, a method for obtaining information from an
image
signal using a computer includes obtaining a digital representation of a
display image.
Characters in the image are recognized and the desired content within the
image is located.

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Accordingly, in one aspect, the present invention provides a method for
obtaining address information from an image signal using a computer,
comprising:
obtaining a digital representation of a display image; recognizing characters
in said
image; and locating address information in said characters to enable an entity
to be
contacted using said address information.
In a further aspect, the present invention provides a computer system
comprising: a processor; memory coupled to said processor; an input device
coupled to
said processor; a television receiver coupled to said processor to display
television
programs; and an optical character recognition device coupled to the
television receiver
to scan signal information for generating a television picture and to identify
contact
information in said signal information.

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Brief Description Of The Drawing
Figure 1 illustrates the display screen of a television showing an
advertisement;
Figure 2 is a file captured from information on the screen shown in Figure 1;
Figure 3 is a file containing information captured from the screen shown in
Figure 1;
Figure 4 is a block diagram showing a computer system for implementing one
embodiment of the present invention; and
Figure 5 is a flow chart showing a flow for one embodiment of the present
invention.
Detailed Description
Images containing contact information may be captured from a television
picture or a
computer display and manipulated by a computer system to facilitate contact
with the
broadcast content provider, which may be the advertiser on a television
program. For
example, television advertisers commonly broadcast advertisements like that
shown in Figure
1 which display a variety of information about their products. These
advertisements may also
include contact information such as names, addresses, telephone numbers and
universal
resource locators (URLs) which may be utilized to contact the advertiser or
other content
provider.
A computer monitor display may also include images that include contact
information
in an image or graphics mode, for example using bit mapped graphics, rather
than a text
mode. The contact information may be included as part of an Internet web page,
for example.
In accordance with one aspect, the signal information that produces the image
on the
television or computer display 10 is digitally captured. For example, the
telephone number
depicted on the display 10 shown in Figure 1 may be recorded and provided in
the form of a
digital file 12 as indicated in Figure 2. Similarly, additional information
from the screen 10
may be captured and placed in an appropriate field 15 according to the type of
contact
information.
Software may use logical heuristics to determine which information constitutes
a
person's name, which information constitutes a company name, which information
constitutes an address, which information is a phone number and which
information
constitutes an Internet URL. Common characteristics of each of those fields
may be stored in

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a program to determine whether or not a given piece of information belongs in
a particular
field.
Refernng to Figure 4, a set top computer system 15 includes a processor 16
connected
to system memory 18 and a north bridge 20. The north bridge 20 may
conventionally
connect to a bus 22 which may in turn be coupled to a display controller 24
which is in turn
connected to a television 25. The bus 22 may also connect to a south bridge
26. The bridge
26 may couple a hard disk drive 28 which may contain one or more programs 30
and 31
which, in the illustrated embodiment could be an optical character recognition
(OCR) and a
telephone/address directory program.
The south bridge 26 in turn connects to a bus 32 which may connect to a serial
input
output (SIO) port 34. The port 34 may connect to a keyboard 36, a telephone
dialer 40 and a
modem 38. The basic input output system (BIOS) 42 may also be connected to the
bus 32.
Of course, other implementations are possible and various additional
components and
peripherals may be connected to a conventional set top computer system.
Referring now to Figure 5, the computer system 15 initially receives a request
for
capture services as indicated in block 44. This may be the result of the user
clicking on a
button on a display screen 24 or by activating a particular hot key on the
keyboard 36. This
request is interpreted as a request to capture information from the television
display. The
image displayed at the time of the request may be digitally captured as
indicated in block 46
through the operation of the processor 16. The captured digital image is then
subjected to an
optical character recognition conversion, as indicated in block 48, using the
optical character
recognition software 30. This software scans the information in the digital
image and
identifies and associates the image shapes with known characters such as
numbers and letters.
It then provides a text mode representation of the image or graphics mode
data.
The computer system uses heuristics to locate information which corresponds to
contact information styles, as indicated in block 50. For example, numbers
followed by
letters may be recognized as addresses while pairs of words with capital
letters may be
recognized as names. Common first names may be stored in a database to help
determine
that a personal name is involved. Similarly, particular sequences of numbers
may be
recognized as telephone numbers and certain letter sequences may be recognized
as URLs.
Once the contact information has been identified, it may be displayed to the
user, for
example, on the display screen, and the user may check the displayed
information to insure

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that the desired information was captured, as indicated in block 52. The user
can insert
corrections in a corrections window (block 52) and the contact information is
revised (block
53). For example, if two telephone numbers are returned, the user can indicate
which
telephone number is desired.
The selected contact information may then be stored in memory 18 or on the
hard disk
drive 28, as indicated in block 54. In some cases, it may be desirable to then
make contact, as
indicated in block 56, using the contact information. The dialer 40 may be
automatically
activated to call the stored telephone number. Alternatively, where a URL has
been
identified, the modem 38 may be used to automatically contact an appropriate
Internet service
provider and to obtain the desired web page.
Contact information that has been captured off of the television display may
then be
automatically added to the database of conventional software 31 that compiles
contact
information, such as software telephone or address directories. Once the
information has
been identified and placed in the appropriate fields it can be supplied to
such software
directories for later use, as indicated in block 58. These directories may
provide searching and
autodialing capabilities and the like.
The computer system 1 S determines whether the telephone number is either a
local
number or a long distance number by comparing any area code with a
predetermined local
area code. If the call is a long distance call, a dialing prefix may be added.
The present system facilitates making contact with information providers who
provide
content such as advertising over television broadcasts or graphics mode
information on web
pages. It also facilitates storing such contact information in contact
software such as address
or telephone directory software.
While the present invention has been described with respect to a single
embodiment,
those skilled in the art will appreciate numerous modifications and variations
therefrom. It is
intended that the appended claims cover all such modifications and variations
as fall within
the true spirit and scope of the present invention.

Representative Drawing