Patent · US Expired

Method and apparatus for identifying multiple stage document format transformations

US5299304A · kind A · utility

76Cited by
1References
6Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateApr 16, 1991
Grant dateMar 29, 1994
Priority date
Expiry dateApr 16, 2011

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04N1/40068
  • WIPO fieldAudio-visual technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

Modern electronic office environments often include hundreds of different document format types. Format/object transformation applications exist which are capable of transforming a first selected document/object format into a second selected document/object format; however, the existence of thousands of such transformation applications make it difficult to identify the existence of multiple stage format transformations. Accordingly, a matrix is established having multiple rows and columns of zero value cells. An identification of selected document/object formats is associated with each row and column of the matrix. Thereafter, for each existing transformation capable of directly converting a selected document/object format into a second selected document/object format a value of one is entered into a cell at the intersection of a row of the matrix associated with the selected document/object format and a column of the matrix associated with the second selected document/object format. The existence of a multiple stage transformation from a first particular document/object format into a second particular document/object format is then determined by evaluating the matrix at successive…

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.