Name browsing systems and methods

• US 20040199495A1
• Filed: 07/02/2003
• Published: 10/07/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 07/03/2002
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: BBN Technologies (Rtx Corporation)
• Original Assignee: BBN Technologies (Rtx Corporation)
• Inventors: Wilson, Andrew, Boisen, Sean, Nielsen, Susan S., Kubala, Francis G., Shepard, Scott, Colbath, Sean
• Application Number:
  US10/610,799
• Publication Number:
  US 20040199495A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 25/78 Detection of presence or absence of voice signals switching of direction of transmission by voice frequency in two-way loud-speaking telephone systems H04M9/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/42 Graphical user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/60 Medium conversion
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/305 Recording playback features, e.g. increased speed
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface

Abstract

A system provides document browsing by proper name. The system identifies a subset of documents from a set of documents (310). The documents in the subset of documents include proper names. The system receives a selection of at least one of the proper names from the subset of documents (330) and searches the subset of documents to identify one or more of the documents in the subset of documents that include at least one occurrence of the selected proper name(s) (360). The system then presents the one or more of the documents as a result of the search (370).

Claims

1. A method of providing name browsing across a plurality of documents, comprising:

identifying a group of documents, documents in the group of documents including a plurality of proper names;

receiving a selection of one or more of the proper names from within at least one of the documents in the group of documents;

querying the group of documents based on the one or more of the proper names; and

presenting, to a user, one or more of the documents from the group of documents as a result of the querying.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the proper names correspond to names of at least one of people, places, and organizations.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the documents include at least two of audio documents, video documents, and text documents.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifying a group of documents includes:

receiving one or more search terms from the user,

searching a database of documents based on the one or more search terms, and

identifying documents in the database, as the group of documents, based on a result of the searching.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifying a group of documents includes:

receiving, from the user, a plurality of documents as the group of documents.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

presenting the group of documents to the user;

receiving a selection of at least one document from the group of documents; and

providing the at least one document to the user with proper names visually distinguished.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the proper names relate to names of people, places and organizations;

and

wherein the providing the at least one document includes;

visually distinguishing the proper names relating to people, places, and organizations differently.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the providing the at least one document includes:

providing text relating to the at least one document.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the at least one document originates from one of an audio source and a video source and the text relating to the at least one document includes a transcription of one of an audio signal from the audio source and a video signal from the video source.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the querying the group of documents includes:

identifying one or more of the documents that contain at least one occurrence of the one or more of the proper names.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the querying the group of documents includes:

identifying one or more of the documents that contain at least one occurrence of the one or more of the proper names in a plurality of languages or variations of the one or more of the proper names.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a selection of one of the one or more of the documents, as a selected document;

providing the selected document to the user with proper names visually distinguished.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the one or more of the proper names are visually distinguished differently from other ones of the proper names in the selected document.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

permitting the user to cycle through occurrences of the one or more of the proper names in the selected document.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a selection of another one or more of the proper names from the one or more of the documents;

querying the group of documents based on the another one or more of the proper names; and

presenting, to the user, at least one of the documents from the group of documents as a result of the querying.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing a histogram that includes the proper names from the group of documents and a count of a number of occurrences of each of the proper names.

17. A system for providing name browsing across a plurality of documents, comprising:

means for receiving an identification of a subset of documents from a set of documents, documents in the subset of documents including a plurality of proper names;

means for receiving a selection of at least one of the proper names, as at least one selected proper name, from the subset of documents;

means for searching the subset of documents to identify one or more of the documents in the subset of documents that include at least one occurrence of the at least one selected proper name; and

means for presenting the one or more of the documents as a result of the searching.

18. A name browsing system, comprising:

a database configured to store a plurality of multimedia documents, the documents including a plurality of proper names; and

a server connected to the database and configured to;

identify a group of the documents in the database,

receive a selection of one of the proper names, as a selected proper name, from within a document in the group of documents,

use the selected proper name to query the group of documents and identify one or more of the documents in the group of documents that include at least one occurrence of the selected proper name, and

provide text from the one or more of the documents with the selected proper name visually distinguished.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the proper names correspond to names of at least one of people, places, and organizations.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein the documents include documents that originate from at least two of audio sources, video sources, and text sources.

21. The system of claim 18, wherein when identifying a group of the documents, the server is configured to:

receive one or more search terms from a user,

search the database based on the one or more search terms, and

identify documents in the database, as the group of documents, as a result of the searching.

22. The system of claim 18, wherein the server is further configured to:

present the group of documents to a user,

receive a selection of at least one document from the group of documents, and

provide the at least one document to the user with proper names visually distinguished.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the proper names relate to names of people, places and organizations;

and

wherein when providing the at least one document, the server is configured to;

visually distinguish the proper names relating to people, places, and organizations differently.

24. The system of claim 18, wherein when using the selected proper name to query the group of documents, the server is configured to:

identify one or more of the documents that contain at least one occurrence of the selected proper name in a plurality of languages or variations of the selected proper name.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein the database includes:

an alias table that provides variations for the proper names.

26. The system of claim 24, wherein the database includes:

a translingual table that provides translations of the proper names into a plurality of languages.

27. The system of claim 18, wherein when providing text from the one or more of the documents, the server is configured to:

visually distinguish all proper names in the one or more of the documents.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein the selected proper name is visually distinguished differently from other ones of the proper names in the one or more of the documents.

29. The system of claim 18, wherein a user is permitted to cycle through occurrences of the selected proper name in the one or more of the documents.

30. The system of claim 18, wherein the server is further configured to:

receive a selection of another one of the proper names, as another selected proper name, from the one or more of the documents,

query the group of documents based on the another selected proper name, and

present at least one of the documents from the group of documents as a result of the querying.

31. The system of claim 18, wherein the server is further configured to:

provide a histogram that includes the proper names from the group of documents and a count of a number of occurrences of each of the proper names.

32. The system of claim 18, wherein the documents include audio documents;

and

wherein the system further comprises;

an indexing system configured to;

generate transcriptions of the audio documents, and

locate proper names in the transcriptions of the audio documents.

33. A method for providing browsing by proper name across a plurality of documents, comprising:

identifying a group of documents that includes multimedia documents containing a plurality of proper names;

presenting text corresponding to the multimedia documents with the proper names visually distinguished;

receiving a selection of one or more of the proper names, as one or more selected proper names;

identifying at least one of variations of the one or more selected proper names and translations of the one or more selected proper names;

querying the group of documents to identify one or more of the documents, as one or more identified documents, that contain one or more occurrences of the one or more selected proper names, the variations of the one or more selected proper names, or the translations of the one or more selected proper names; and

providing the one or more identified documents as a result of the querying.