Hypervideo: information retrieval at user request

• US 20030191754A1
• Filed: 04/03/2003
• Published: 10/09/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 10/29/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Laboratories Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Verizon Laboratories Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Dey, Jayanta Kumar, Ponte, Jay Michael
• Granted Patent: US 7,779,342 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/748 Hypervideo linking data to content, e.g. by linking an URL to a video object in the context of video distribution systems H04N21/858
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99942 Manipulating data structure, e.g. compression, compaction, compilation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface

Abstract

Disclosed is a method and device for selecting documents, such as Web pages or sites, for presentation to a user, in response to a user expression of interest, during the course of presentation to the user of a document, such as a video or audio selection, whose content varies with time. The method takes advantage of information retrieval techniques to select documents related to the portion of the temporal document in which the user has expressed interest.

Claims

1. A method for finding documents which relate to a portion of a temporal document, comprising:

(a) in response to a signal of interest at a particular time during the temporal document, identifying a portion of the temporal document for which related documents are to be found;

(b) finding the related documents by use of information retrieval techniques.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the temporal document is video or audio material.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the video material is stored on a video server.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the temporal document includes text.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the document text appearing to the user varies with time.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the text includes news bulletins, weather, sports scores or stock transaction or pricing information.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the related documents are accessed through the Internet.

8. The method of claim 7, further including selecting the related documents from among a collection of documents which may be accessed through the Internet, by utilizing databases comprising information about the collection.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the related documents are selected from the collection according to the scores achieved when evaluating documents in the collection according to a formula giving scores to documents depending upon the occurrence in the documents of terms which occur in text associated with the portion of the temporal document identified.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein a predetermined number of documents, 1000, are selected.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein a score S_D of a document D in the collection may be determined by crediting the document D, for each term T in the temporal portion of the document identified which occurs in the document D, with an amount proportional to Robertson'"'"'s term frequency TF_TD and to IDF_T where

TF_TD=N_TD/(N_TD+K₁+K₂*(L_D/L₀)), and

N_TD is the number of times the term T occurs in document D,

L_D is the length of document D,

L₀ is the average length of a document in the collection of documents indexed,

K₁ and K₂ are constants, and

IDF_T=log((N+K₃)/N_T)/log(N+K₄), and

N is the number of documents in the collection,

N_T is the number of documents containing the term T in the collection, and

K₃ and K₄ are constants.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein K₁ is 0.5, K₂ is 1.5, K₃ is 0.5, and K₄ is 1.0.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the determination of the documents in the collection which receive the highest scores is carried out using compressed document surrogates.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein the determination of the documents in the collection which receive the highest scores is carried out by a server which is distinct from the server which receives the signal of interest.

15. A device for finding documents which relate to a portion of a temporal document, comprising:

(a) means for identifying a portion of the temporal document for which related documents are to be found, in response to a signal of interest at a particular time during the temporal document;

(b) means for finding the related documents by use of information retrieval techniques.

16. The device of claim 15, wherein the temporal document is video or audio material.

17. The device of claim 16, wherein the video material is stored on a video server.

18. The device of claim 15, wherein the temporal document includes text.

19. The device of claim 18, wherein the document text appearing to the user varies with time.

20. The device of claim 19, wherein the text includes news bulletins, weather, sports scores or stock transaction or pricing information.

21. The device of claim 15, wherein the related documents are accessed through the Internet.

22. The device of claim 21, further including means for selecting the related documents from among a collection of documents which may be accessed through the Internet, by utilizing databases comprising information about the collection.

23. The device of claim 22, wherein the related documents are selected from the collection according to the scores achieved when evaluating documents in the collection according to a formula giving scores to documents depending upon the occurrence in the documents of terms which occur in text associated with the portion of the temporal document identified.

24. The device of claim 23, wherein a predetermined number of documents, 1000, are selected.

25. The device of claim 23, wherein a score S_D of a document D in the collection may be determined by crediting the document D, for each term T in the temporal portion of the document identified which occurs in the document D, with an amount proportional to Robertson'"'"'s term frequency TF_TD and to IDF_T where

TF_TD=N_TD/(N_TD+K₁+K₂*(L_D/L₀)), and

N_TD is the number of times the term T occurs in document D,

L_D is the length of document D,

L₀ is the average length of a document in the collection of documents indexed,

K₁ and K₂ are constants, and

IDF_T=log((N+K₃)/N_T)/log(N+K₄), and

N is the number of documents in the collection,

N_T is the number of documents containing the term T in the collection, and

K₃ and K₄ are constants.

26. The device of claim 25, wherein K₁ is 0.5, K₂ is 1.5, K₃ is 0.5, and K₄ is 1.0.

27. The device of claim 23, wherein the determination of the documents in the collection which receive the highest scores is carried out using compressed document surrogates.

28. The device of claim 23, wherein the determination of the documents in the collection which receive the highest scores is carried out by a server which is distinct from the server which receives the signal of interest.