Adding Information or Functionality to a Rendered Document via Association with an Electronic Counterpart

Abstract

An action plan data structure for one or more selected rendered documents is described. The data structure contains information specifying an action to perform automatically in response to a text capture from any of the selected rendered documents.

We claim: 
     
         1 - 20 . (canceled) 
     
     
         21 . A method, comprising:
 at an index publication server:
 receiving a full-text index for determining textual content of a plurality of electronic documents, wherein each electronic document of the plurality of electronic documents corresponds to a respective rendered document; 
 receiving a query that is based on a text capture from at least a portion of a rendered document; 
 determining a first level of query matching between the received query and a first rendered document; 
 determining a second level of query matching between the received query and a second rendered document wherein the first rendered document differs from the second rendered document; 
 retrieving, from the full-text index, a first specified level of matching for the first rendered document; 
 retrieving, from the full-text index, a second specified level of matching for the second rendered document; 
 determining that the first level of query matching exceeds the first specified level of matching; and 
 responsively generating a first query result, for the received query, that identifies the first rendered document; and 
 aggregating a plurality of indications of received queries to generate a profile of documents that have been queried. 
   
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 21 , wherein the text capture is obtained by optical scanning. 
     
     
         23 . The method of  claim 22 , further comprising storing an indication that the text capture is obtained by optical scanning. 
     
     
         24 . The method of  claim 22 , wherein the received query contains an indication that the text capture is obtained by optical scanning. 
     
     
         25 . The method of  claim 24 , wherein the first query result is generated for the received query in a manner different than is used for queries not containing the indication. 
     
     
         26 . The method of  claim 21 , wherein the plurality of electronic documents comprises an electronic document for which a paper version exists. 
     
     
         27 . The method of  claim 21 , wherein the plurality of electronic documents comprises an electronic document for which a paper version is known to have been created. 
     
     
         28 . The method of  claim 21 , wherein the plurality of electronic documents comprises an electronic document of a document type for which paper versions are typically created. 
     
     
         29 . The method of  claim 21 , wherein the first query result returns identifications of electronic versions of documents of which paper versions exist. 
     
     
         30 . The method of  claim 21 , wherein the first query result comprises an indication of a location in the first rendered document where the text capture occurs. 
     
     
         31 . The method of  claim 21 , further comprising:
 receiving a selection of the first rendered document identified in the first query result; and   providing controlled access to the first rendered document.   
     
     
         32 . The method of  claim 31 , wherein providing controlled access to first rendered document comprises imposing a pecuniary charge for access to the first rendered document. 
     
     
         33 . The method of  claim 31 , wherein providing controlled access to the first rendered document comprises providing access to the first rendered document when access the first rendered document is approved. 
     
     
         34 . The method of  claim 21 , wherein an index is used to generate at least the first query result, and wherein the index used to generate at least the first query result is the full-text index. 
     
     
         35 . The method of  claim 34 , further comprising:
 receiving additional indexes; and   creating an aggregated index consolidating the full-text index with the additional indexes, wherein the index used to generate at least the first query result is the aggregated index.   
     
     
         36 . The method of  claim 34 , further comprising:
 creating an aggregated index consolidating the full-text index with index information for one or more public networks, wherein the index used to generate at least the first query result comprises the aggregated index.   
     
     
         37 . The method of  claim 21 , wherein at least one electronic document of the plurality of electronic documents is identified by one or more links between documents available inside a network. 
     
     
         38 . The method of  claim 21 , wherein at least one electronic document of the plurality of electronic documents is identified based on one or more document catalogs. 
     
     
         39 . The method of  claim 38 , wherein at least one document catalog of the one or more document catalogs is a file system directory. 
     
     
         40 . The method of  claim 38 , wherein at least one document catalog of the one or more document catalogs is a document management system catalog. 
     
     
         41 . The method of  claim 34 , wherein using the index based on the full-text index to generate at least the first query result comprises: determining that the first query result is permitted to include an identification of the first rendered document in the first query result. 
     
     
         42 . The method of  claim 21 , wherein the full-text index comprises a plurality of indexes, each index of the plurality of indexes covering a subset of the plurality of electronic documents, such that the first rendered document is covered in a distinguished index, and
 wherein the method further comprises:   determining that one or more requirements for revealing the first rendered document are satisfied; and   in response, using the distinguished index to generate the first query result.   
     
     
         43 . The method of  claim 21 , wherein the full-text index comprises a filtered index. 
     
     
         44 . The method of  claim 34 , wherein the received query comprises a contiguous-string query specifying an ordered sequence of query terms, and wherein the method further comprises: using the index based upon the full-text index to determine that each query term in the ordered sequence of query terms is contained in the first rendered document; and
 determining that the first rendered document satisfies the contiguous-string query.   
     
     
         45 . The method of  claim 44 , wherein the index based upon the full-text index is configured to determine that the first rendered document satisfies the contiguous-string query. 
     
     
         46 . The method of  claim 21 , further comprising:
 determining that the second level of query matching is less than the second specified level of matching; and   responsively determining not to generate, for the received query, a second query result that identifies the second rendered document.   
     
     
         47 . A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon instructions that, when executed, cause a computing system to perform operations, comprising:
 receiving a full-text index for determining textual content of a plurality of electronic documents, wherein each electronic document of the plurality of electronic documents corresponds to a respective rendered document;   receiving a query that is based on a text capture from at least a portion of a rendered document;   determining a first level of query matching between the full-text query and a first rendered document;   determining a second level of query matching between the received query and a second rendered document, wherein the first rendered document differs from the second rendered document;   retrieving, from the full-text index, a first specified level of matching for the first rendered document;   retrieving, from the full-text index, a second specified level of matching for the second rendered document;   determining that the first level of query matching exceeds the first specified level of matching;   responsively generating a first query result, for the received query, that identifies the first rendered document; and   aggregating a plurality of indications of received queries to generate a profile of documents that have been queried.   
     
     
         48 . An index publication server, configured to:
 receive a full-text index for determining textual content of a plurality of electronic documents, wherein each electronic document of the plurality of electronic documents corresponds to a respective rendered document;   receive a query that is based on a text capture from at least a portion of a rendered document; and   determine a first level of query matching between the received query and a first rendered document;   determine a second level of query matching between the received query and a second rendered document, wherein the first rendered document differs from the second rendered document;   retrieve, from the full-text index, a first specified level of matching for the first rendered document;   retrieve, from the full-text index, a second specified level of matching for the second rendered document;   determine that the first level of query matching exceeds the first specified level of matching;   responsively generate a first query result for the received query that identifies the first rendered document; and   aggregate a plurality of indications of received queries to generate a profile of documents that have been queried.   
     
     
         49 . An index aggregation system, comprising:
 an index subsystem comprising:
 a first full-text index; 
 a second full-text index, wherein at least one of the first full-text index or the second full-text index is configured to store a specified level of matching for an electronic document, and wherein the specified level of matching specifies a level of matching that a query for the electronic document has to match the electronic document before existence of the electronic document is revealed; 
 a query subsystem configured to service a plurality of queries by searching at least the first full-text index and the second full-text index to generate a plurality of query results corresponding to the plurality of queries based on the specified levels of matching in the at least one of the first full-text index or the second full-text index and to aggregate a plurality of indications of received queries to generate a profile of documents that have been queried, wherein at least one query of the plurality of queries is based on a text capture from at least a portion of a rendered document, and 
 wherein a query result corresponding to the at least one query is configured to identify the rendered document and at least one electronic document corresponding to the rendered document. 
   
     
     
         50 . The index aggregation system of  claim 49 , wherein the index aggregation system is configured to identify a preferred index and return results from the preferred index. 
     
     
         51 . The index aggregation system of  claim 50 , wherein the index aggregation system is configured to identify the preferred index based on content of a query. 
     
     
         52 . The index aggregation system of  claim 49 , further comprising:
 a payment subsystem, configured to receive payments;   wherein the query subsystem is further configured to service a first distinguished query after the payment subsystem receives a payment for the first distinguished query.   
     
     
         53 . The index aggregation system of  claim 49 , further comprising:
 a payment subsystem, configured to receive payments;   wherein the query subsystem is further configured to service a second distinguished query before the payment subsystem receives a payment for the second distinguished query.   
     
     
         54 . The index aggregation system of  claim 49 , wherein the index subsystem further comprises a third index. 
     
     
         55 . A system, comprising:
 an index subsystem comprising:
 a first full-text index; 
 a second full-text index, wherein the first full-text index differs from the second full-text index, wherein at least one of the first full-text index or the second full-text index is configured to store a specified level of matching for an electronic document, and wherein the specified level of matching specifies a level of matching that a query for the electronic document has to match the electronic document before existence of the electronic document is revealed; 
 a query subsystem configured to generate a plurality of query results for a corresponding plurality of queries by searching at least the first and second full-text indices based on the specified levels of matching in the at least one of the first full-text index or the second full-text index and to aggregate a plurality of indications of received queries to generate a profile of documents that have been queried, wherein at least one query of the plurality of queries is based on a text capture from at least a portion of a rendered document, and wherein a query result corresponding to the at least one query is configured to identify the rendered document and at least one electronic document corresponding to the rendered document; and 
 a result subsystem that returns at least some of the plurality of query results based on the specified levels of matching in the at least one of the first full-text index or the second full-text index.