Patent ID: 7428569

Claim:
An information processing apparatus comprising: character string reading means for reading a character string in an image of a business card photographed by photographing means; character string capture and analysis means for identifying that a type of information represented by said character string corresponds to one of a telephone number, a postal code, an address, an e-mail address, a Uniform Resource Locator (URL), a date and a monetary amount by capturing and analyzing said character string read by said character string reading means, and extracting said information represented by said character string, and automatically selecting, from a plurality of available applications, a graphical map-based navigational application based on said character string when said type of character string corresponds to an address, postal code, or a telephone number and automatically selecting another one of said plurality of available applications when said type of character string corresponds to an e-mail address, a URL, a date or a monetary amount; and display controlling means for generating an analysis result screen including said type of information represented by said character string and said information of said character string obtained by said character string capture and analysis means, and displaying said analysis result screen on display means, wherein said character string capture and analysis means identifies a type of information represented by the read character string by comparing a format of the read character string to a format of a plurality of types of information stored in a character string analysis database, wherein said character string reading means registers said character string read in a read history tab provided in the screen of said display means to display the same therein, and places a cursor over the newest said character string; and said character string capture and analysis means captures said character string when said cursor is placed over said character string and a prescribed time or more passes thereafter.