1. A method for quantifying a measure of quality of a document, comprising:
(a) measuring a group identity of objects in the document; and
(b) quantizing the measured group identity of objects in the document.
2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the quantized group identity of objects in the document is realized by measuring and quantizing visibility of objects in the document.
3. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the quantized group identity of objects in the document is realized by measuring and quantizing a spatial coherence of objects in the document.
4. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the quantized group identity of objects in the document is realized by measuring and quantizing a consistency of style of objects in the document.
5. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the quantized group identity of objects in the document is realized by measuring and quantizing a structural identity of objects in the document.
6. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the quantized group identity of objects in the document is realized by measuring and quantizing a horizontal alignment of objects in the document.
7. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the quantized group identity of objects in the document is realized by measuring and quantizing a vertical alignment of objects in the document.
8. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the quantized group identity of objects in the document is realized by measuring and quantizing a use of headings in the document.
9. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the quantized group identity of objects in the document is realized by measuring and quantizing a use of background in the document.
10. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the quantized group identity of objects in the document is realized by measuring and quantizing a use of borders in the document.
11. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the quantized group identity of objects in the document is realized by:
(i) measuring and quantizing visibility of objects in the document;
(ii) measuring and quantizing a spatial coherence of objects in the document;
(iii) measuring and quantizing a consistency of style of objects in the document;
(iv) measuring and quantizing a structural identity of objects in the document;
(v) measuring and quantizing a horizontal alignment of objects in the document;
(vi) measuring and quantizing a vertical alignment of objects in the document;
(vii) measuring and quantizing a use of headings in the document;
(viii) measuring and quantizing a use of background in the document; and
(ix) measuring and quantizing a use of borders in the document.
12. A method for quantifying a measure of quality of a document, comprising:
(a) measuring a predetermined set of subcharacteristics of the document;
(b) quantizing the measured predetermined set of subcharacteristics of the document; and
(c) generating a quantized group identity of objects in the document value for the document based on a predetermined combining function, the predetermined combining function combining the quantized measured predetermined set of subcharacteristics, the quantized group identity of objects in the document value being a measure of quality of the document.
13. The method as claimed in claim 12, wherein the predetermined combining function is a weighted average of the quantized measured predetermined set of subcharacteristics.
14. The method as claimed in claim 12, wherein the predetermined combining function is a weighted sum of the quantized measured predetermined set of subcharacteristics.
15. The method as claimed in claim 12, wherein the predetermined combining function is a weighted product of the quantized measured predetermined set of subcharacteristics.
16. The method as claimed in claim 12, wherein the predetermined combining function is a non-linear operation performed upon the quantized measured predetermined set of subcharacteristics.
17. A method for quantifying a measure of quality of a document, comprising:
(a) measuring a separability of objects in the document; and
(b) quantizing the measured separability of objects in the document.
18. The method as claimed in claim 17, wherein the quantized separability of objects in the document is realized by measuring and quantizing a spatial separability of objects in the document.
19. The method as claimed in claim 17, wherein the quantized separability of objects in the document is realized by measuring and quantizing an alignment separability of objects in the document.
20. The method as claimed in claim 17, wherein the quantized separability of objects in the document is realized by measuring and quantizing a style separability of objects in the document.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
We claim:
1. An analog-to-digital converter comprising:
an input to receive an input signal;
a quantizer, coupled to the input, to sample the input signal; and
a residue generator, coupled to the quantizer and adapted to separately sample the input signal;
wherein sampling characteristics of the residue generator substantially match sampling characteristics of the quantizer.
2. The converter as claimed in claim 1 wherein a degree of matching of the sampling characteristics is selected at least in part based upon an expected frequency range of the input signal.
3. A method of sampling an input voltage comprising:
using a quantizer, sampling the input voltage; and
using a residue generator operatively connected to receive an output from the quantizer, having sampling characteristics substantially matching sampling characteristics of the quantizer, also sampling the input voltage.
4. The method as claimed in claim 3 wherein the sampling characteristics are matched at least in part based upon an expected frequency range of the input signal.
5. An analog-to-digital converter, comprising:
a residue generator;
a quantizer;
each of the residue generator and the quantizer having a sampling network connected to sample a same analog input signal and the sampling networks having substantially matched sampling characteristics;
an output from the quantizer operatively connected to provide an input to the residue generator; and
the residue generator being configured and arranged to generate a residue signal from the quantizer output and samples from the residue generator sampling network.
6. The analog-to-digital converter of claim 5 wherein the matched sampling characteristics include the bandwidths of the sampling networks.
7. The analog-to digital converter of claim 5 or claim 6 wherein the matched sampling characteristics include sampling timing.
8. The analog-to-digital converter of claim 5 wherein the quantizer comprises a flash converter having a plurality of comparators, each having one input connected to a respective threshold voltage and one input connected to an output of the quantizer sampling network; and
the quantizer sampling network comprising a sample-and-hold circuit for each of said comparators.
9. A pipelined analog-to-digital converter comprising a first stage, one or more intermediate stages each of which receives as input a residue signal output from an immediately preceding stage, a final stage which converts a residue output signal from a next-to-final stage into a corresponding digital signal and correction logic which receives each stage’s output and generates a corresponding digital word; and at least the first stage being an analog-to-digital converter according to claim 5 or claim 6.
10. In an analog-to-digital converter having a residue generator, the improvement comprising:
a quantizer;
each of the residue generator and the quantizer having a sampling network connected to sample a same analog input signal and the sampling networks having substantially matched sampling characteristics;
an output from the quantizer operatively connected to provide an input to the residue generator; and
the residue generator being configured and arranged to generate a residue signal from the quantizer output and samples from the residue generator sampling network.
11. The analog-to-digital converter of claim 10 wherein the matched sampling characteristics include the bandwidths of the sampling networks.
12. The analog-to-digital converter of claim 10 or claim 11, wherein the analog-to-digital converter is selected from among a pipeline converter, a cyclic converter, a pipeline sigma-delta converter, an error-correcting successive approximation converter, and a two-step converter.