MET: media-embedded target for connecting paper to digital media

Media-embedded target, or MET, is an iconic mark printed in a blank margin of a page. The mark indicates that a media link is associated with a nearby region of the page. It guides the user to capture a predefined larger region beyond the mark to ensure that the system can retrieve the associated link reliably with enough natural visual features in the captured region. The target also serves to indicate page regions with media. To use an MET, users align the target on paper with a sight of the same shape on the mobile phone display. When the system detects correct alignment, the image is automatically captured by the phone's camera. Compared to related approaches, an MET provides an indication for the availability of a link without a major visual impact on the page. We compare the use of MET for guiding capture with two standard methods: one that uses a logo to indicate that media content is available and text to define the capture region and another that explicitly indicates the capture region using a visible boundary mark.