Method and apparatus for annotating a document

• US 20020129057A1
• Filed: 03/09/2001
• Published: 09/12/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 03/09/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Copernicus Investments, LLC
• Original Assignee: Copernicus Investments, LLC
• Inventors: Spielberg, Steven
• Granted Patent: US 7,366,979 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/512
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/165 Management of the audio stream, e.g. setting of volume, audio stream path
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/169 Annotation, e.g. comment data or footnotes
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/00 Speech synthesis; Text to speech systems
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46

Abstract

In one or more embodiments of the invention, the apparatus and methods described herein allows users to review and add any number of annotations (i.e. add comments) to a digital document such as movie scripts, books, etc. from anywhere in the world. For instance, the invention may play the document to the user via an audio output mechanism and provides the user with a way to comment on the document by simply speaking to an audio input mechanism. Any type of computational device may be configured to embody the invention and thereby provide the user with an interface to comment on or review comments about a particular document. Some examples of the type of devices that can be configured to implement embodiments of the invention include, the components of an automobile sound system, a cell phone, a land-based telephone, a personal computer (e.g., a PC or a PDA), dictation device, or any other system capable of accepting audio input and output. Each of the devices that embody the invention may access the document so as to provide the user with a way to review documents from multiple locations using multiple types of devices. The user may, for example, begin reviewing a document in an automobile, continue to review the document via a cell phone, and finish reviewing the document from home using a regular phone line.

Claims

1. An apparatus for annotating a document comprising:

a processor;

memory coupled to said processor, said memory comprising at least one text document;

a document processing engine configured to obtain said at least one text document from said memory and convert at least a portion of said at least one text document to at least one audio file;

an audio output device configured to play said at least one audio file to a first user;

an audio input device configured to obtain at least one verbalized comment from said user about said at least one audio file wherein said at least one verbalized comment is stored as an audio comment file;

an annotator, said annotator configured to associate said audio comment file with a location in said text document that corresponds to said audio file playing when said first user provided said at least one comment.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said memory comprises removable media.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 where said removable media comprises flash memory.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said audio file comprises a streaming media file.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein annotator obtains a start annotation mark from said first user indicating a beginning of said location.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 wherein said annotator obtains an annotation end mark identifying the end of said location.

7. An apparatus for annotating a document comprising:

a server having a text-to-speech engine configured to obtain at least one text document from memory and convert at least a portion of said at least one text document to at least one audio file;

a thin-client device configured to obtain said at least one audio file from said server;

an audio output device configured to play said at least one audio file to a first user, wherein said audio output device is associated with said thin-client;

said thin-client device having an audio input element configured to obtain at least one verbalized comment from said user about said at least one audio file, wherein said at least one verbalized comment is transmitted to said server and stored as an audio comment file on said server;

said server having an annotator, said annotator configured to associate said audio comment file with a location in said text document that corresponds to said audio file playing when said first user provided said at least one comment.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein said thin-client device is connected to said server via an interconnection fabric.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein said interconnection fabric comprises a telephone network.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein said interconnection fabric comprises a computer network.

11. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein said thin-client comprises a telephone.

12. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein said audio comment file is stored in at least one associations file.

13. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein said annotator is associated with a Speech Recognition Engine configured to obtain said audio comment file and convert said verbalized comment back to text.

14. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein said server comprises a voice command interface.

15. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein said server is configured to mark the beginning of said verbalized comment upon receipt of a start annotation mark.

16. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein said server is configured to mark the end of said verbalized comment upon receipt of an end annotation mark.

17. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein said audio comment file comprises data recorded by said server between receipt of said start annotation mark and said end annotation mark.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein said document comprises text data.

20. The method of claim 18 wherein said memory medium comprises removable media.

21. The method of claim 20 wherein said removable media comprises flash memory.

22. The method of claim 20 wherein said interconnection path comprises a network.

23. The method of claim 20 wherein said network comprises a wireless network.

24. The method of claim 20 wherein said network comprises a telephone network.

25. The method of claim 24 wherein said telephone network comprises a cellular network.

26. The method of claim 18 wherein a document processing engine performs said converting step.

27. The method of claim 26 wherein said document processing engine optimizes said audio elements.

28. The method of claim 18 wherein said converting said document to audio elements occurs at a server.

29. The method of claim 28 wherein said server generates an audio file associated with said presenting said audible playback of said audio elements.

30. The method of claim 18 wherein said converting said document to audio elements occurs at a client.

31. The method of claim 29 wherein said client generates an audio file associated with said presenting said audible playback of audio elements.

18. A method for annotating a document comprising:

obtaining a document from a memory medium via an interconnection path configured to access said document;

converting said document to audio elements;

presenting an audible playback of said audio elements to a user when said user indicates a desire to hear said document;

obtaining verbalized comments from said user via an audio input mechanism upon receipt of an annotation start mark during said audible playback;

associating said verbalized comments with a location in said document corresponding with the occurrence of said annotation start mark during said audible playback.

32. A method for annotating a document comprising:

obtaining a document from a memory medium via an interconnection path configured to access said document, said document having text elements;

obtaining a first annotation of said text document, said first annotation having a first set of audio elements;

converting said text elements to a second set of audio elements;

associating said first set of audio elements with said second set of audio elements to generate a playback document;

generating an audible playback of said playback document to a user when said user indicates a desire to hear said document;

obtaining verbalized comments from said user via an audio input mechanism upon activation of an annotation trigger during said audible playback;

associating said verbalized comments with a location in said playback document corresponding with the occurrence of said annotation trigger during said audible playback.

33. The method of claim 32 wherein said document comprises text data.

34. The method of claim 32 wherein said memory medium comprises removable media.

35. The method of claim 34 wherein said removable media comprises flash memory.

36. The method of claim 32 wherein said interconnection path comprises a network.

37. The method of claim 36 wherein said network comprises a wireless network.

38. The method of claim 36 wherein said network comprises a telephone network.

39. The method of claim 38 wherein said telephone network comprises a cellular network.

40. The method of claim 32 wherein a document processing engine performs said converting step.

41. The method of claim 40 wherein said document processing engine optimizes said audio elements.

42. The method of claim 32 wherein said converting said document to audio elements occurs at a server.

43. The method of claim 42 wherein said server generates an audio file associated with said presenting said audible playback of said audio elements.

44. The method of claim 32 wherein said converting said document to audio elements occurs at a client.

45. The method of claim 44 wherein said client generates an audio file associated with said presenting said audible playback of audio elements.

47. The method of claim 46 wherein said document comprises text data.

48. The method of claim 46 wherein said memory medium comprises removable media.

49. The method of claim 48 wherein said removable media comprises flash memory.

50. The method of claim 48 wherein said interconnection path comprises a network.

51. The method of claim 50 wherein said network comprises a wireless network.

52. The method of claim 50 wherein said network comprises a telephone network.

53. The method of claim 52 wherein said telephone network comprises a cellular network.

54. The method of claim 46 wherein a document processing engine performs said converting.

55. The method of claim 46 wherein said document processing engine optimizes said audio elements.

56. The method of claim 46 wherein said converting said document to audio elements occurs at a server.

57. The method of claim 56 wherein said server generates an audio file associated with said presenting said audible playback of said audio elements.

58. The method of claim 46 wherein said converting said document to audio elements occurs at a client.

59. The method of claim 58 wherein said client generates an audio file associated with said presenting said audible playback of audio elements.

46. A method for annotating a document comprising:

generating authentication information of a user desiring access to a document;

allocating an associations file structure for said user;

obtaining said document from a memory medium via an interconnection path configured to access said document, said document having text elements;

obtaining a first annotation of said text document, said first annotation having a first set of audio elements;

converting said text elements to a second set of audio elements;

associating said first set of audio elements with said second set of audio elements to generate a playback document;

generating an audible playback of said playback document to said user when said user indicates a desire to hear said document;

obtaining verbalized comments from said user via an audio input mechanism upon activation of an annotation trigger during said audible playback;

associating said verbalized comments with a location in said playback document corresponding with the occurrence of said annotation trigger during said audible playback; and

storing said location and said authentication information of said user and said verbalized comments in said associations file structure.