Digital ink annotation process and system for recognizing, anchoring and reflowing digital ink annotations

• Main Authors: BARGERON, DAVID M, WEI, ZILE, MOSCOVICH, TOMER, SHILMAN, MICHAEL
• Format: Patent
• Language: English; French; German
• Published: 15.12.2004
• Edition: 7
• Subjects: CALCULATING; COMPUTING; COUNTING; ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING; HANDLING RECORD CARRIERS; PHYSICS; PRESENTATION OF DATA; RECOGNITION OF DATA; RECORD CARRIERS

A digital ink annotation process and system for processing digital documents and digital ink annotations therein. The process and system maintain an annotation's position within a document such that the original intent and meaning of the annotation is preserved. This is true even if the document is edited, resized, displayed on a different device or otherwise modified. The digital ink annotation process includes automatic and manual grouping of digital ink strokes within a document to define digital ink annotations, classifying the annotations according to annotation type, and anchoring the annotations to appropriate regions or positions in a document. The process further includes reflowing the annotations in a new document layout such that the annotations conform and adapt to the new layout while preserving the original intents and meanings of the annotations. A digital ink annotation system includes a classification module, an anchoring module, a reflow module and a clean-up module to implement the digital ink annotation process.