TECHNIQUES FOR VIEWING AND SEARCHING DOCUMENTS FROM COLLECTIONS OF DOCUMENTS

摘要

A computing device is configured to generate a graphical user interface (GUI) that allows an end-user to search for particular document or documents within a large collection of documents. The GUI provides a view of the overall document collection and affords the end-user the ability to reduce the number of visual document thumbnails by means of keyword search. When the end-user identifies a candidate among the reduced number of thumbnails, the end-user may select the page view of the candidate document and conduct further review. If the selected candidate is not the target document, the end-user may select adjacent documents to seamlessly transition between reading and searching. An advantage to this approach is that the visual qualities of the documents, such as images, graphical layout, and color, among others, may be incorporated into the search process. Searching for a particular target document is, thus, expedited.

主权项

1. A computer-implemented method for viewing documents stored in a database, the method comprising:
rendering a first composite image illustrating a graphical overview of the database that includes a plurality of first-sized images that correspond to a plurality of documents; rendering a second composite image that includes a plurality of second-sized images that correspond to a subset of the plurality of documents; rendering a third composite image that includes a plurality of variable-sized images that correspond to one or more pages of a first document included in the subset; and causing a graphical user interface (GUI) to display the first composite image, the second composite image, and the third composite image on a display device.