Apparatus for linking printed Documents to their virtual Original
The following Idea came to me after talking to a friend, who wondered why people prefer to have documents printed on paper, instead of just keeping them inside there computer and reading them through a screen. I realized that many people prefer a physical representation, and they have difficulties navigating the virtual space that a computer represents, often leading to situations where computer owners are unable to find documents on their computer harddisk.
Therefore I propose the following Apparatus:
On every document printed, in a corner, a tiny bit of space is used to add a 2D-Barcode (see Figure.1 on the left), that contains a uniquely identifiable number, that is a link to the virtual representation of the document inside the computer from which it was printed. When the computer owner is then unable to find the file on his computer, he can then use the built-in web-cam that many Laptops are equipped with, (see Figure.1 on the right) to scan the 2D-Barcode on his printed copy of the document, enabling the computer software to transform the 2D-Barcode representation into a number, and querying the internal database for the corresponding document, which shall then be loaded, and presented to the user.
Figure 1:
Legal:
I hereby grant non-exclusive and non-revocable rights to use this idea of mine to anyone who uses it in software that is licensed under the GPL v2, v3 or later.
If you are interested to patent this idea of mine, and others that I will come up with or already have, for commercial/proprietary licensing, please contact me privately for terms and conditions.
Thank you,
and have a nice day
-Richard Spindler
richard.spindler@gmail.com
January 8th, 2009 at 14:04
I am not sure if such a patent does not already exist. Have you checked free patents online? Apart from that, I think it’s a great idea.
PS: Did you draw that stuff with xfig?
January 8th, 2009 at 20:24
Yes, I used xfig, the best tool for creating professional looking graphics.
Cheers
-Richard