Calculations on images within cells in spreadsheets

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11200372-B2
Application number	US-201615340886-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 1, 2016
Priority date	Nov 2, 2015
Publication date	Dec 14, 2021
Grant date	Dec 14, 2021

Abstract

Described herein is a system and method for associating images with one or more cells in a spreadsheet application. As described, one or more images may be associated with a single cell in a spreadsheet application or it may be associated with a range of cells in the spreadsheet application. Information about the image, such as metadata, pixel information or other parameters, may be retrieved from the image. Once retrieved, a calculation engine may perform one or more calculations on the information in order to change an appearance of the image.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system comprising:
at least one processing unit; and
at least one memory storing computer executable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processing unit, causes the system to perform operations of:
associating an image with a spreadsheet cell;
rendering the image in the spreadsheet cell using a display property having a numeric value;
using a function of a spreadsheet application to obtain the numeric value of the display property from data of the image associated with the spreadsheet cell;
changing, using a calculation function of the spreadsheet application and data obtained from another spreadsheet cell, the numeric value of the display property, wherein the calculation function comprises one or more of a blur function, a sharpen function and a glow function; and
providing, for display in the spreadsheet cell, the image with the display property modified based on the changed numeric value.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the data of the image includes image data and image metadata, and the numeric value of the display property is obtained from the image metadata associated with the image.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the data of the image includes pixel information, and the numeric value of the display property is obtained from the pixel information associated with the image.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the image is included in the spreadsheet cell.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the memory stores the computer executable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processing unit, causes the system to further perform an operation of displaying an updated image in a second spreadsheet cell.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the memory stores the computer executable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processing unit, causes the system to further perform an operation of receiving the image by one of:
pasting the image into the spreadsheet cell;
dropping the image into the spreadsheet cell;
retrieving the image from storage based on a file locator; and
inserting the image into the spreadsheet cell.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the display property comprises opacity, luminance, or brightness.

8. A computer-implemented method of a spreadsheet application, comprising:
selecting an image associated with a spreadsheet cell;
rendering the image in the spreadsheet cell using a display property having a numeric value;
using a function of the spreadsheet application to obtain the numeric value of the display property from data of the image associated with the spreadsheet cell;
changing, using a calculation function of the spreadsheet application and data from another spreadsheet cell, the numeric value of the display property, wherein the calculation function comprises one or more of a blur function, a sharpen function and a glow function; and
providing, for display in the spreadsheet cell, the image with the display property modified based on the changed numeric value.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the display property comprises an image size, an image aspect ratio, or an image resolution.

10. The method of claim 8 , wherein the calculation function is executed when a condition associated with the image is met.

11. The method of claim 8 , wherein the calculation function comprises selecting multiple spreadsheet cells and performing the calculation function using information contained in each of the spreadsheet cells.

12. The method of claim 8 , wherein the data of the image includes image data and image metadata, and the numeric value of the display property is obtained from the image metadata associated with the image.

13. The method of claim 8 , wherein the data of the image includes pixel data, and the numeric value of the display property is obtained from the pixel data corresponding to the image.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the pixel data is placed in various rows and columns of the spreadsheet application.

15. The method of claim 8 , wherein the display property comprises opacity, luminance, or brightness.

16. One or more computer storage media storing computer-useable instructions that, when used by one or more computing devices, cause the one or more computing devices to perform operations comprising:
rendering an image associated with a spreadsheet cell using a display property having a numeric value;
using a function of a spreadsheet application to obtain the numeric value of the display property;
obtaining data from another spreadsheet cell;
providing the numeric value of the display property and the data from the another spreadsheet cell to a calculation function associated with the spreadsheet application, wherein the calculation function comprises one or more of a blur function, a sharpen function and a glow function;
using the calculation function to generate an updated image with an altered appearance in which the display property of the image has changed; and
causing a display of the updated image in the spreadsheet cell.

17. The one or more computer storage media of claim 16 , wherein the numeric value of the display property is obtained from pixel data of the image.

18. The one or more computer storage media of claim 16 , wherein the display property comprises opacity, luminance, or brightness.

19. The one or more computer storage media of claim 16 , wherein the display property comprises an image size, an image aspect ratio, or an image resolution.

Assignees

• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Canton Christian M
• Otero Carlos A
• Campbell John
• Radakovitz Samuel C
• Fichtner Matthew Hart

Classifications

• G06T11/26

  Drawing of charts or graphs · CPC title

• G06V30/412

  Layout analysis of documents structured with printed lines or input boxes, e.g. business forms or tables · CPC title

• G06V30/414

  Extracting the geometrical structure, e.g. layout tree; Block segmentation, e.g. bounding boxes for graphics or text · CPC title

• G06F40/18 Primary

  of spreadsheets (form-filling G06F40/174) · CPC title

• G10L13/033

  Voice editing, e.g. manipulating the voice of the synthesiser · CPC title