Abstract:
A system and method for automatically generating the most relevant thumbnail of a document. Every page of a multi-page document is analyzed for rich content. Based on this analysis, a score is assigned to every page of the document depending on certain parameters such as the amount of rich content and number of occurrences of rich content on each page. The page with the highest score is identified and this page is selected as the thumbnail of the document.

Description:
BACKGROUND 
     1. Technical Field 
     The invention in preferred embodiments relates generally to forming thumbnails of documents and more specifically to selecting images to form thumbnails. 
     2. Prior Art 
     A thumbnail is a page from a multi-page document that represents the content of the entire document. Typically, the thumbnail is derived automatically from the first page of a multi-page document, but when the first page is blank or does not have much content and hence does not meaningfully represent the document, this is unsatisfactory. Thus, an automatically selected first page thumbnail is not necessarily the best thumbnail of the document. 
     Thumbnails are also selected manually by document creators scanning each page of a document. This takes a long time and is tedious and subjective since the thumbnail is selected based on the user&#39;s interpretation of the document. 
     Thus, there remains a need for a way to automatically determine the most eligible thumbnail of a multi-page document. 
     SUMMARY 
     Embodiments of the invention, described herein provide a system and a method for determining the most relevant thumbnail of a multi-page document. 
     In one embodiment the entire multi-page document is analyzed page by page based on certain parameters to generate the most relevant thumbnail of the document. Such parameters are aimed at analyzing the amount of rich content appearing on each page as well as the number of occurrences of rich content on each page. Based on this analysis, every page of the document is assigned a score. Finally, the page with the highest score is identified as the most relevant thumbnail of the multi-page document. It is possible for multiple pages in the document to be assigned the same score, in which case the multiple pages are formed into a collage which is selected as the thumbnail. 
     Embodiments of the invention help identify the most relevant thumbnail of a multi-page document from the perspective of the document creator. Pages with rich content are more complicated to put together and typically have valuable data as compared to simple plain text pages. Thus, selecting a rich content page as the thumbnail of a document is likely to reflect the creator&#39;s intent. 
     From a document user&#39;s perspective, pages with richer content are more meaningful than pages with simple plain text. Users can spend more time on rich content pages, for example browsing hyperlinks, analyzing data in tables and viewing embedded images and videos. Since it is more probable for users to remember such rich-content pages in the document, selecting such pages as the thumbnail of the document is more meaningful. 
     Other embodiments may be used in products such as Adobe®Bridge and Version Cue® for the purpose of asset management. 
     This summary is not intended to describe each embodiment of the invention. The Detailed Description and Figures that follow provide additional aspects of embodiments of the invention. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  illustrates various types of Rich Content; 
         FIG. 2  is a flowchart illustrating the sequence of steps in determining the thumbnail of a multi page document in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention; 
         FIG. 3  is a flowchart illustrating sequence of steps for an embodiment of the invention which identifies a multi-page collage as a thumbnail of the document; 
         FIG. 4  is a block diagram view of an embodiment of the invention; 
         FIG. 5  illustrates an embodiment of a content management system; and 
         FIG. 6  illustrates an embodiment of the invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS 
     Embodiments of the invention analyze multi-page documents for Rich Content types.  FIG. 1  shows an example “Rich Content” page illustrating various Rich Content types such as “Text with bold styling”  110 , “Hyperlinks”  112 , “Tables”  116 , “Images”  118 , and “Graphics”  124 . A “Rich Content Page” is a page containing at least one of the Rich Content types such as Text with styling (i.e. bold, italic, underline, colored), hyperlinks, images, comments and tables. Two pages with rich content can differ in the type of rich content on the pages and in the number of occurrences of rich content of each type on the pages. For example, in one embodiment, a page containing two hyperlinks and three images is richer than a page containing two hyperlinks and one image. A preferred embodiment analyzes the content on each page to calculate its score, and elects the page with the highest score as the thumbnail of the document. 
       FIG. 2  is a flowchart illustrating a sequence of steps in determining the thumbnail of a multi-page document in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. The method starts in step  185 , when a use opts to view a folder containing a document. Content types may be assigned weights as for example in the following table: 
                                                 Text with bold styling   1           Hyperlinks   1.5           Comments   2           Tables   2.5           Images   3           Audio   3.5           Video   4           Graphics   4.5                        
For each: page in step  190 , step  195  analyzes the number of rich content types and the number of occurrences of each type. Step  200  calculates a weight or score of the rich content of the page. Step  210  maintains a database of content types, weights assigned to the content types, and total weight or score of each page.
 
     After step  215  concludes that all the pages have been weighed step  220  identifies the page with the highest score. Step  225  selects this page as the thumbnail of the document. This thumbnail may then be stored with the file as a thumbnail graphic or icon for the file. Step  226  generates this page as the thumbnail of the document, stores the thumbnail within the document as thumbnail graphic, and tags the thumbnail page internally. In step  227 , if the user elects to display the thumbnail, then in step  228  the thumbnail information is retrieved and displayed. If the user elects not to display the thumbnail, the asset management system queries the document for the thumbnail page (step  229 .) Step  230  tags thumbnail page, which is retrieved and sent to the asset management system. 
     It will be appreciated that the method of selecting the thumbnail of the document could be done as a preprocessing step, wherein once a thumbnail is generated it is stored along with the file. Alternatively method could be performed spontaneously whenever a document is, presented for viewing such as in a file explorer window. 
     A preferred embodiment uses the following weighting algorithm to determine the most appropriate thumbnail of a multi-page document. Other weighting algorithms can be used without deviating from the spirit of the invention. 
     1. Assign Weights W 1 , W 2  . . . Wn to the various rich content types present in the document, where n=number of rich content types in the document. For example the weight W 1  is assigned to hyperlinks. 
     2. Let S 1 , S 2  . . . Sm be the Score of each page where m=total number of pages in the document. 
     3. Initialise S 1 =S 2 = . . . Sm=0. 
     4, For a given Page P(i),
 
Score of Page  i=S ( i )=( Wj*Cj ) where  j  varies from 1 to  k.  
 
Wj=Weight of Rich content type j.
 
Cj=Count of Rich content type j on Page Pi.
 
k=Number of Rich content types present on Page i.
 
5. Thumbnail of the document=Page with the highest score, i.e., the maximum of S 1 , S 2  . . . Sn.
 
       FIG. 3  is a flowchart illustrating the sequence of steps in identifying a collage as the thumbnail of a multi-page document in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention. Step  235  starts. For each page in step  240 , step  245  analyzes the rich content type and the number of occurrences of rich content type. Based on this analysis step  250  assigns a score to each page. After step  255  when all pages are done, step  260  inquires whether there are multiple pages with the same highest score. If not, step  265  identifies the page with the highest score as the most relevant thumbnail (step  270 ) and the process ends (step  290 ). In step  260  if there are multiple pages with the same high score, those pages are identified in step  275 . In step  280  the plurality of highest-scoring pages are collected into a collage which step  285  identifies as the thumbnail of the document. A collage is defined as a collection of elements that together constitute a single entity. In an embodiment of the invention, the collage refers to the plurality of highest-scoring pages collected together and stored as a single thumbnail graphic, which is then identified as the thumbnail of the document. The process ends in step  290 . 
       FIG. 4  is a block diagram view of an embodiment of the invention. Analyzer module  295  performs  FIG. 2  step  195  of analyzing each page for its amount of rich content and its number of occurrences. Parsing module  300  performs step  200  of parsing each page and assigning it a score based on the analysis of rich content. Ranking algorithm module  305  performs step  220  of keeping track of which page(s) has the highestscore. Database module  310  or step  165  stores the page number with the list of rich content types and the number of occurrences of rich content on page. Based on the assigned scores, the thumbnail determination module  315  in step  225  identifies the page with the highest score as the thumbnail of the document. 
     The method of one embodiment of the invention is preferably performed by a content management program  540  running on a computer  530  in a content management system  500  as shown in  FIG. 5 . The system typically also has input devices  510  and output devices  520 . Content management program  540  enables creating, manipulating, managing, storing and displaying electronic documents  550 . Such documents are typically characterized by content information, such as text images and the like, and can include for example web pages, PDF documents, electronic books or documents (including files) in other conventional formats. Users can use content management program  540  to view displayed content and thumbnails for the displayed content. The content management program  540  can be implemented as part of a web browser or a conventional content management program such as Adobe Acrobat® or Adobe InDesign®. An embodiment of the invention can be implemented and perform the method steps in digital electronic circuitry, or in computer hardware, firmware, software, in a machine-readable storage device, or in combinations of them. 
       FIG. 6  is an illustration of an embodiment of the invention. In step  560 , if a viewer wishes to view a document from a folder, the system accesses the document in step  565 . In step  570 , a thumbnail determination module determines the most relevant thumbnail of the document and stores the information in an internal database. If the user wishes to view the document (step  580 ), the thumbnail information is generated spontaneously. Step  590  displays the thumbnail. If the user does not wish to view the thumbnail, the thumbnail information as stored in accessed in the future in response to user request (step  575 .) 
     While embodiments of the present invention are disclosed in terms of exemplary embodiments, it can be practiced in a number of ways as defined by the scope of the appended claims. Additionally, various features of embodiments of the invention can be modified in a myriad of ways to achieve the goal of analyzing the rich of a document to automatically determine the most relevant thumbnail of the document.