Rich media information portals

• US 20030217328A1
• Filed: 08/30/2002
• Published: 11/20/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 05/17/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Agassi, Shai, Willis, Brian
• Granted Patent: US 7,200,801 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/500
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/335 Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profiles filtering in web context G06F16/9535, G06F16/9536
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/954 Navigation, e.g. using categorised browsing

Abstract

Methods and systems for providing personalized information in a variety of formats is disclosed. Articles may be disseminated to users according to the users'"'"' preferences. Each article may contain a plurality of content segments, each content segment being contained within a corresponding content block that is labeled as being renderable using one or more rendering media, such as audio, video, image, or text. In this way, users may receive personalized information in a variety of ways; for example, a user can receive customized presentations about particular articles of interest via radio, cell phone, voicemail, television, MPEG player, web browser, or virtually any other type of media player.

Claims

1. A method for aggregating content for a user, the method comprising:

accessing a plurality of media assets, each media asset comprising content blocks, each of the content blocks comprising content of the media asset associated with one of a plurality of content types;

selecting a subset of the plurality of media assets, based on a preference of a user;

choosing, for each media asset within the subset, one of a plurality of rendering media associated with a content type of content within a content block of the media asset; and

aggregating content of each media asset within the subset into a cohesive presentation, the content of each media asset being expressed in the rendering medium chosen for that media asset.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein each media asset includes a content discussion object characterizing the content within the media asset, and selecting the subset of the plurality of media assets comprises:

inputting preference discussion objects received from the user; and

comparing the content discussion object included within each of the plurality of media assets against the preference discussion objects.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the content discussion objects each characterize individual elements of information within the content.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of content types includes hyper-text markup language (“

HTML”

), text, text to be rendered as video, or text to be rendered as audio.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of rendering media includes an HTML-based web-page, video, audio, or text.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein choosing one of the plurality of content types comprises choosing from among the content types based on a characteristic of a client system of the user.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein choosing one of the plurality of content types comprises choosing from among the content types based on a preference of the user.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein choosing one of the plurality of content types comprises receiving a delivery request from the user, the request including information about a client system of the user.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein aggregating content of each media asset within the subset comprises:

determining that at least one of the chosen content types is narrative data; and

generating a graphic, video, or audio presentation of the narrative data.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein aggregating content of each media asset within the subset comprises:

determining that at least one of the chosen content types is graphical data; and

generating a video representation of the graphical data.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein aggregating content of each media asset within the subset into a cohesive presentation comprises determining an order of content of each media asset within the cohesive presentation based on a preference of the user.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein each media asset in the subset includes metadata characterizing the content thereof, and aggregating content of each media asset within the subset into a cohesive presentation comprises determining an order of content within each media asset within the cohesive presentation based on a consideration of the metadata with respect to a characteristic of a client system of the user or a preference of the user.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising delivering the cohesive presentation to a machine accessible by the user.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein delivering the cohesive presentation comprises delivering the cohesive presentation electronically.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein accessing a plurality of media assets, selecting a subset of the plurality of media assets, choosing one of the plurality of presentation formats, and aggregating content of each media asset within the subset into a cohesive presentation are performed electronically.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein delivering the cohesive presentation comprises delivering the cohesive presentation via a private network.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein delivering the cohesive presentation comprises delivering the cohesive presentation via a public network.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting a subset of the plurality of media assets comprises:

filtering the plurality of media assets based on the preference of the user, to thereby obtain a filtered subset; and

prioritizing the filtered subset based on the preference of the user.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the preference of the user comprises a preferred rendering media.

20. A system for delivering content to a user at a client system, the system comprising:

an article reader operable to access a plurality of media assets, each media asset including content blocks, each content block labeled as one of a plurality of content types and containing a segment of the content;

a sorting engine operable to select a subset of the plurality of media assets, based on a preference of a user;

a content-type selector operable to select a content block for each media asset within the subset; and

an aggregation engine operable to combine content segments of the subset, each content segment corresponding to the content block selected for each media asset within the subset.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the content-type selector is operable to select the content block based on a characteristic of a client system of the user.

22. The system of claim 20, wherein the article reader is further operable to publish content metadata associated with each media asset, the content metadata characterizing the content segment of the media asset.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the sorting engine is further operable to select the subset based on the content metadata.

24. The system of claim 20, wherein the content-type selector is operable to select one of the plurality of content types based on a preference of the user.

25. The system of claim 20, wherein the content-type selector is operable to select one of the plurality of content types based on receipt of a delivery request from the user, the request including information about a client system of the user.

26. The system of claim 20, wherein the aggregation engine is further operable to determine that at least one of the plurality of content types is narrative data, and to generate a graphic, video or audio presentation of the narrative data.

27. The system of claim 20, wherein the aggregation engine is further operable to determine that at least one of the plurality of content types is narrative data, and generate a video representation of the narrative data.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein the video representation is a computer-generated image of an animated head made to resemble a person reading the narrative data.

29. The system of claim 20, wherein the rendering engine is further operable to render the combined content segments based on prioritization information contained in the preference of the user.

30. An apparatus comprising a storage medium having instructions stored thereon, the instructions including:

a first code segment for selecting a first media asset and a second media asset, the first and second media assets including a first and a second content segment, respectively, the first and second content segments each associated with at least two rendering media;

a second code segment for selecting, for each of the first and second content segments, at least one of the rendering media for delivering each of the first and second content segments, to a client system; and

a third code segment for combining the first and second content segments into a cohesive presentation.

31. The apparatus of claim 30, further comprising a fourth code segment for delivering the cohesive presentation to the client system.

32. The apparatus of claim 30, wherein the second code segment further comprises selecting at least one of the rendering media based on a characteristic of the client system.

33. The apparatus of claim 30, wherein the first code segment is for selecting narrative text, and the third code segment is for generating a video or an audio presentation from the narrative text.

34. A method for delivering content, the method comprising:

selecting a first media asset and a second media asset, the first and second media assets including a first and a second content segment, respectively, the first and second content segments each associated with at least two rendering media;

selecting for each of the first and second content segments at least one of the rendering media for delivering each of the first and second content segments to a client system;

combining the first and second content segments into a cohesive presentation; and

delivering the cohesive presentation to the client system.

35. A system for delivering content, comprising:

a selection subsystem operable to select a first and second article from among a pool of articles, the first and second article containing a first and second content segment, respectively; and

a pagination engine operable to aggregate the first and second content segments, and further operable to render the content segments for delivery to a client system based on data contained within the first and second articles indicating a first and second rendering medium for rendering the first and second content segments, respectively.

36. The system of claim 35, wherein the pagination engine is operable to render the first and second content segments based on a characteristic of the client system.

37. The system of claim 35, wherein the first and second content segments include a first and a second content type, respectively, of the first and second content segments.

38. The system of claim 37, wherein the first content type is text, audio, video, text to be rendered as audio, or text to be rendered as video.

39. The system of claim 35, wherein the selection subsystem is further operable to determine an order of the first content segment with respect to the second content segment, based on a preference of a user of the client system.

40. A system for delivering content, the system comprising:

means for selecting a subset of a plurality of articles, each article in the subset including a first content segment and a second content segment, the first content segment and the second content segment associated with a first content type and a second content type, respectively;

means for selecting at least one of the first content type and the second content type for each content segment; and

means for combining the content segments and selected content type into a cohesive presentation.

41. The system of claim 40, further comprising

means for delivering the cohesive presentation.