Sketch-a-Doc: Sketch a Document to Find It

Abstract

With the vast amount of documents users tend to accumulate in their hard drives, it is natural that they often forget where certain file is stored or even its name. However, sometimes they still recall a mental image of the document's layout. We developed a new approach to document retrieval that capitalizes on human visual memory to help users find their personal documents. The users can sketch the layout of the document using a calligraphic interface and the system will present them with those that match that sketch. Documents are processed to extract its relevant features, blocks are segmented and classified according to their contents and a description of the layout is created. We described the document in two different ways: grid-based and semantic-based. The interface allows the user to choose from each of this search methods and includes also a complementary query by example mechanism.