Presentation given at DocEng 2006, ACM Symposium on Document Engineering, October 2006 ABSTRACT: Citations form the basis for a web of scientific publications. Search engines, embedded hyperlinks and digital libraries all simplify the task of finding publications of interest on the web and navigating to cited publications or web sites. However the actual reading of publications often takes place on paper and frequently on the move. We present a system Print-n-Link that uses technologies for interactive paper to enhance the reading process by enabling users to access digital information and/or searches for cited documents from a printed version of a publication using a digital pen for interaction. A special virtual printer driver automatically generates links from paper to digital services during the printing process based on an analysis of PDF documents. Depending on the user setting and interaction gesture, the system may retrieve metadata about the citation and inform the user through an audio channel or directly display the cited document on the user’s screen.

1. Print-n-Link: Weaving the Paper Web
Moira C. Norrie, Beat Signer and Nadir Weibel
Institute for Information Systems, ETH Zurich
8092 Zurich, Switzerland
http://vub.academia.edu/BeatSigner
October 2006

2. Scientific Web of Publications
 Citations build the basis
for a scientific web of
publications
 Use of web technologies
 convert citations and
bibliography items into
hyperlinks
 Paper documents still
heavily used for reading
October 2006 DocEng 2006, Beat Signer, signer@inf.ethz.ch 2

3. Print-n-Link
 Extend the web to span paper and digital
document spaces
 obtain the best of both worlds
 Easy navigation between paper and digital
media
 Maintain affordances of paper (e.g. mobility)
 Handle arbitrary existing PDF documents
October 2006 DocEng 2006, Beat Signer, signer@inf.ethz.ch 3

4. Print-n-Link …
October 2006 DocEng 2006, Beat Signer, signer@inf.ethz.ch 4

5. Anoto Functionality
 Unique pattern space
 60 million km2
 Pen manufacturers
 Sony Ericson
 Logitech
 Nokia
 Maxell
October 2006 DocEng 2006, Beat Signer, signer@inf.ethz.ch 5

6. Print-n-Link Architecture
Interactive Paper Architecture Desktop
(x,y)
Coordinates iSERVER
iPAPER Active Content Text-to-
Speech
iPaper iPaper Plug-in
Client Link DB
Publish
Positions and
Active Content
Definition
Document Retrieval
Print-n-Link Engine
Web Search
Citation Document Services
Retrieval Lookup
Print-n-Link: Weaving the Paper Web Semantic Mapper Printing
Moira C. Norrie Beat Signer Nadir Weibel
Dept. of Computer Science Dept. of Computer Science Dept. of Computer Science
ETH Zurich ETH Zurich ETH Zurich
8092 Zurich, Switzerland
norrie@inf.ethz.ch
8092 Zurich, Switzerland
signer@inf.ethz.ch
8092 Zurich, Switzerland
weibel@inf.ethz.ch
Publish Display
ABSTRACT Citation DB
Citations
engines and web browsers. The ease with which we can
Citations form the basis for a web of scientific publications. not only find documents on the web, but also follow links
Search engines, embedded hyperlinks and digital libraries to related documents is considered to be one of the main
all simplify the task of finding publications of interest on advantages of working with digital documents as opposed
the web and navigating to cited publications or web sites. to paper equivalents. Y many studies have shown that
et
However the actual reading of publications often takes place paper is still the preferred med ium when it comes to reading
on paper and frequently on the move. We present a system documents for reasons of comfort, mobility and also ease of
Print-n-Link that uses technologies for interactive paper to annotation.
enhance the reading process by enabling users to access dig- In this paper, we show how emerging technologies for in-
ital information and/or searches for cited documents from a teractive paper enable a bridge to be built between paper
printed version of a publication using a digital pen for inter- and digital document spaces that allows users to travel back
and forth between the two using the medium most appropri-
iDOC
action. A special virtual printer driver automatically gener-
ates links from paper to digital services during the printing ate to the current task and sit uation. Users can print doc-
process based on an analysis of PDF documents. Depend- uments for reading and, by activating hyperlinks on paper
ing on the user setting and interaction gesture, the system with a digital pen, they can not only access digital informa-
may retrieve metadata about the citation and inform the tion about related documents, but also initiate web searches
user through an audio channel or directly display the cited to retrieve copies of those documents. The retrieved docu-
document on the user’s screen. ments may in turn be printed for reading with automatically
generated embedded hyperlinks on the paper. Mobility is
supported by providing disconnected users on the move with
Categories and Subject Descriptors audio information about related documents and the option
D.2.11 [ Software Engineering ]: Software Architectures; of adding them to a request list to be processed when recon-
H.4.m [ Information Systems Applications ]: Miscella- nected.
neous; H.5.m [ Information Interfaces and Presenta- As an application, we take the everyday academic task of
tion ]: Miscellaneous reading scientific publications. Whether the reading activ-
Semantic Mapper
ity is for the purpose of knowledge discovery or reviewing,
readers regularly look up citations to other publications by
General Terms flicking to the reference list at the back of the paper. In some
Design, Algorithms, Experimentation cases, a search for the cited publication may follow and, if
found, often it is printed and added to a pile of documents to
Keywords be read. Citations are the established means of providing the
links that form the basis of the scientific web of publications
Publish
Interactive paper, document integration, digital library, ci- that spans the digital and paper worlds. Just as citations
tation management within digital documents can be used to automatically gen-
1. INTRODUCTION
erate hyperlinks to cited documents, we can automatically
generate links within paper documents through an analysis
Citation Printer
Nowadays we are all familiar with the notion of hyperlinks
as a means of creating interconnected document spaces that
of the PDF file when the document is printed.
Section 2 presents a more detailed look at the activity
of reading scientific publications and a discussion of related Document Print
Driver
can be easily searched and navigated with the help of search
work. Section 3 describes the digital pen and paper tech-
nologies and how these can be used to support interaction
Analyser
Pattern
between paper and digital services. We then present the
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for general functionality of our enhanced reading system in Sec-
personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are tion 4 and the overall architecture in Section 5. Details of
not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies the virtual printer component used to analyse PDF docu-
bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. To copy otherwise, to ments for automatic link generation as well as printing are
republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific
permission and/or a fee.
given in Section 6. Concluding remarks follow in Section 7.
DocEng’06, October 10–13, 2006, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Copyright 2006 ACM 1-59593-515-0/06/0010 ...$5.00.
Document DB
October 2006 DocEng 2006, Beat Signer, signer@inf.ethz.ch 6

7. Interactive Paper Architecture
Print-n-Link: Weaving the Paper Web
Moira C. Norrie
Dept. of Computer Science
ETH Zurich
8092 Zurich, Switzerland
norrie@inf.ethz.ch
Beat Signer
Dept. of Computer Science
ETH Zurich
8092 Zurich, Switzerland
signer@inf.ethz.ch
Nadir Weibel
Dept. of Computer Science
ETH Zurich
8092 Zurich, Switzerland
weibel@inf.ethz.ch
HTTP Request
ABSTRACT
Citations form the basis for a web of scientific publications.
engines and web browsers. The ease with which we can
not only find documents on the web, but also follow links
ID, Page, (x,y)
Encoded
Search engines, embedded hyperlinks and digital libraries to related documents is considered to be one of the main
all simplify the task of finding publications of interest on advantages of working with digital documents as opposed
the web and navigating to cited publications or web sites. to paper equivalents. Y many studies have shown that
et
However the actual reading of publications often takes place paper is still the preferred med ium when it comes to reading
on paper and frequently on the move. We present a system documents for reasons of comfort, mobility and also ease of
Print-n-Link that uses technologies for interactive paper to annotation.
enhance the reading process by enabling users to access dig- In this paper, we show how emerging technologies for in-
ital information and/or searches for cited documents from a teractive paper enable a bridge to be built between paper
printed version of a publication using a digital pen for inter- and digital document spaces that allows users to travel back
and forth between the two using the medium most appropri-
Position
action. A special virtual printer driver automatically gener-
ate to the current task and sit uation. Users can print doc-
XIMA
ates links from paper to digital services during the printing
process based on an analysis of PDF documents. Depend- uments for reading and, by activating hyperlinks on paper
ing on the user setting and interaction gesture, the system with a digital pen, they can not only access digital informa-
may retrieve metadata about the citation and inform the tion about related documents, but also initiate web searches
user through an audio channel or directly display the cited to retrieve copies of those documents. The retrieved docu-
document on the user’s screen. ments may in turn be printed for reading with automatically
generated embedded hyperlinks on the paper. Mobility is
supported by providing disconnected users on the move with
Categories and Subject Descriptors audio information about related documents and the option
D.2.11 [ Software Engineering ]: Software Architectures; of adding them to a request list to be processed when recon-
H.4.m [ Information Systems Applications ]: Miscella- nected.
neous; H.5.m [ Information Interfaces and Presenta- As an application, we take the everyday academic task of
tion ]: Miscellaneous reading scientific publications. Whether the reading activ-
ity is for the purpose of knowledge discovery or reviewing,
Response
readers regularly look up citations to other publications by
General Terms flicking to the reference list at the back of the paper. In some
Design, Algorithms, Experimentation cases, a search for the cited publication may follow and, if
AC
found, often it is printed and added to a pile of documents to
Keywords be read. Citations are the established means of providing the
links that form the basis of the scientific web of publications
Interactive paper, document integration, digital library, ci- that spans the digital and paper worlds. Just as citations
tation management within digital documents can be used to automatically gen-
erate hyperlinks to cited documents, we can automatically
1. INTRODUCTION generate links within paper documents through an analysis
Nowadays we are all familiar with the notion of hyperlinks of the PDF file when the document is printed.
as a means of creating interconnected document spaces that Section 2 presents a more detailed look at the activity
iPaper
can be easily searched and navigated with the help of search of reading scientific publications and a discussion of related
work. Section 3 describes the digital pen and paper tech-
nologies and how these can be used to support interaction
between paper and digital services. We then present the
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for general functionality of our enhanced reading system in Sec-
personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are tion 4 and the overall architecture in Section 5. Details of
not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies the virtual printer component used to analyse PDF docu-
bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. To copy otherwise, to ments for automatic link generation as well as printing are
republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific
given in Section 6. Concluding remarks follow in Section 7.
Link DB
permission and/or a fee.
DocEng’06, October 10–13, 2006, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Copyright 2006 ACM 1-59593-515-0/06/0010 ...$5.00.
Interactive iPaper Client and
Document Output Device
October 2006 DocEng 2006, Beat Signer, signer@inf.ethz.ch 7

8. Traditional Anoto Document Production
1 2
Source PDF
Document Document
PDF
Renderer
PS Anoto
Document License
PostScript Anoto
Printer FDT
4 3
October 2006 DocEng 2006, Beat Signer, signer@inf.ethz.ch 8

9. iDoc Printer Driver
 Based on Anoto Paper SDK
 Pad and Print Generation Module (PPGM)
 One-step publishing without Acrobat plug-in
 regular printer driver
 Automatic allocation of Anoto pattern space
 multiple iPaper pages on a single Anoto license page
 Colour management (e.g. black reduction)
October 2006 DocEng 2006, Beat Signer, signer@inf.ethz.ch 9

10. Interactive Paper Authoring
 iServer/iPaper interfaces
 Java API
 XML-based specification
 Web Service interface
 Manual link authoring
 Content-driven publishing
 Automatic link authoring
 semantic mapper
October 2006 DocEng 2006, Beat Signer, signer@inf.ethz.ch 10

11. Semantic Mapper
 Automatic link authoring
 Calculate position of text elements within PDF
 based on iText (free Java-PDF library)
 Export link metadata to iServer
 Plug-in mechanism
 iPublish plug-in (EdFest)
 Citation Analyser plugin (Print-n-Link)
 …
October 2006 DocEng 2006, Beat Signer, signer@inf.ethz.ch 11

12. iServer Export
<rectangle id="umics04_shape" resource="10639_page1">
<name>umics04 shape</name>
<upperLeft><point><x>129</x><y>102</y></point></upperLeft>
<size><width>4</width><height>4</height></size>
</rectangle>
<activeComponent id="umics04_ac">
<name>umics04 ac</name>
<properties>
<parameter><key>ac:oid</key><value>umics_04</value></parameter>
</properties>
<identifier>ch.ethz.printnlink.CITATION_REQUEST</identifier>
</activeComponent>
<link id="umics04_link" sources="umics04_shape" targets="umics04_ac">
<name>umics_04 link</name>
</link>
October 2006 DocEng 2006, Beat Signer, signer@inf.ethz.ch 12

13. Print-n-Link Printing Process
October 2006 DocEng 2006, Beat Signer, signer@inf.ethz.ch 13

14. Document Retrieval
 Check metadata for a URI pointing directly to the
document
 Document lookup based on metadata
 digital library
 Google scholar
 CiteSeer
 …
October 2006 DocEng 2006, Beat Signer, signer@inf.ethz.ch 14

15. Print-n-Link Settings
 In the office
 desktop computer with monitor
 network access
 printer
 On the move
 minimal equipment
 no network access
October 2006 DocEng 2006, Beat Signer, signer@inf.ethz.ch 15

16. Conclusions
 Print-n-Link application
 Automatic augmentation of existing documents
 PDF document analysis
 citation retrieval service
 iDoc printer driver
 integrated Anoto document production
 enhanced handling of Anoto pattern space
 Other documents (e.g. printed web pages)
October 2006 DocEng 2006, Beat Signer, signer@inf.ethz.ch 16