User interface system employing printed substrate and substrate sensing device

Abstract

A user interface system includes a substrate having printed thereon user information and coded data, the coded data identifying various spatial regions of the printed substrate, and identifying a position of each coded data on the printed substrate; an optically imaging device configured to interact with the coded data on the substrate, generate interaction data indicating the physical region in which the device is interacting with the substrate; and a first computer system for receiving the interaction data, the first computer system configured to retrieve a digital version of the substrate, identify a digital region in the digital version corresponding to the physical region indicated by the interaction data, generate a query expression comprising of a search term identified from the digital region, and form a request from the query expression.

1 . A user interface system comprising:
 a substrate having printed thereon user information and coded data, the coded data identifying various spatial regions of the printed substrate, and identifying a position of each coded data on the printed substrate;   an optically imaging device configured to interact with the coded data on the substrate, generate interaction data indicating the physical region in which the device is interacting with the substrate; and   a first computer system for receiving the interaction data, the first computer system configured to retrieve a digital version of the substrate, identify a digital region in the digital version corresponding to the physical region indicated by the interaction data, generate a query expression comprising of a search term identified from the digital region, and form a request from the query expression.   
     
     
         2 . A user interface system according to  claim 1 , further comprising a second computer system, the second computer receiving the request from the first computer system and retrieving a resource identified by the request. 
     
     
         3 . A system according to  claim 2 , wherein the request is a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI). 
     
     
         4 . A system according to  claim 3 , wherein the second computer system comprises a web terminal operable to display the retrieved resource. 
     
     
         5 . A system according to  claim 1 , wherein the search term is associated, in the digital version of the substrate, with the physical region of the substrate. 
     
     
         6 . A system according to  claim 1 , wherein the search term is a keyword extracted from text in the digital region. 
     
     
         7 . A system according to  claim 1 , wherein the query expression comprises two search terms, a first search term being a primary search term and a second search term being a context search term, the context search term being derived from a word, phrase, line, sentence, paragraph, section, article, or document present in the digital region. 
     
     
         8 . A system according to  claim 7 , wherein the search term comprises a plurality of associated words, said plurality of associated words being identified from a selected word in the digital region. 
     
     
         9 . A system according to  claim 8 , wherein the digital version of the substrate comprises a lexicon, the lexicon corresponding the plurality of associated words with the selected word. 
     
     
         10 . A system according to  claim 7 , wherein the primary search term is a keyword and the context search term is derived by determining a meaning of said keyword. 
     
     
         11 . A system according to  claim 1 , wherein the substrate is selected from the group consisting of: a printed document, a printed form, a page of a printed publication, packaging for a product item, a label for a product item, and a surface of a product item.