Systems and methods for user-interest sensitive note-taking

• US 20060116861A1
• Filed: 11/30/2004
• Published: 06/01/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Palo Alto Research Center, Inc. (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Palo Alto Research Center, Inc. (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Inventors: Kaplan, Ronald M., Bobrow, Daniel G., Crouch, Richard, Tepper, Michael
• Granted Patent: US 7,827,029 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/258 Heading extraction; Automatic titling; Numbering
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/30 Semantic analysis

Abstract

Techniques are presented to determine user-interest sensitive notes. User selected passages, user interest information, condensation transformations and optional meaning distortion constraints are identified. User foci expressed by the selected passages are determined based on the similarity of the elements in the selected passages to elements in the user interest information. User sensitive notes are determined by selectively applying the condensation transformations to the selected passages to preferentially retain user foci while eliding less salient information. Meaning distortions constraints are optionally applied in conjunction with condensation transformations or in creating the condensation transformations in order to reduce the likelihood of distorting the meaning of the passage.

Claims

1. A method of user-interest sensitive note-taking comprising the steps of:

determining a passage;

determining user interest information;

determining condensation transformations; and

determining a note based on the determined passage, the user interest information, and the condensation transformations.

2. The method of claim 1, in which determining the note further comprises the step of prioritizing the retention of the elements of the passage that match elements of the user interest information.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

determining a meaning structure for the passage; and

further determining the note based on elements of the meaning structure that match elements of the user interest information.

4. The method of claim 3, in which the meaning structure is determined based on a parsing grammar.

5. The method of claim 4, in which the parsing grammar is determined based on at least one of:

a characteristic of the passage and user preference.

6. The method of claim 5, in which the characteristic of the passage is at least one of:

a language and a genre characteristic.

7. The method of claim 1, in which the note is comprised of grammatical sentences.

8. The method of claim 1, in which the passage is at least one sentence.

9. The method of claim 8, in which the at least one sentence is comprised of at least two words.

10. The method of claim 3, in which the meaning structure is a packed meaning structure.

11. The method of claim 10, in which the packed meaning structure is at least one of:

a logical formula in the predicate calculus, a minimal recursion semantic structure, a feature of head-driven phrase structure and an f-structure.

12. The method of claim 2, in which the matches are determined based on at least one of:

literal, conceptual, distributional, statistical, and co-occurrence similarity.

13. The method of claim 12, in which the conceptual similarity is based on at least one of:

a lexicon;

an ontology;

statistics and a machine-readable information nsource.

14. The method of claim 1, in which the passage is converted into meaning structures using a parsing grammar.

15. The method of claim 1, in which the condensation rules are re-write rules.

16. The method of claim 1, in which the condensation transformations are applied to the meaning structures based on meaning distortion constraints.

17. The method of claim 16, in which the meaning distortion constraints are useable to adjust the condensation of meaning structures characterized as downward monotonic.

18. The method of claim 17, in which the meaning distortion constraint adjustment is at least one of:

preventing condensation and repairing meaning in the meaning structure.

19. The method of claim 1, in which the determined note is comprised of a condensate portion that signals the meaning of the passage.

55. A user interest sensitive note as determined by the method of claim 1, in which the user-interest sensitive note is comprised of at least one condensate and in which a user selectable link provides access to the passage

57. The method of claim 1, in which determining the note further comprise the steps of:

resolving non-local references in the passage to augment local elements with the non-local co-reference information for the purpose of prioritizing the retention of the elements of the passage that match elements of the user interest information

20. A system for user-interest sensitive note-taking comprising:

a processor that determines a passage;

user interest information; and

at least one condensation transformation; and

which determines a note based on the passage;

the user interest information; and

the condensation transformations.

21. The system of claim 20, in which elements of the passage that match elements of the user interest information are preferentially retained.

22. The system of claim 20, in which the processor determines a meaning structure for the passage;

and further determines the note based on elements of the meaning structure that match elements of the user interest information.

23. The system of claim 22, in which the meaning structure is determined based on a parsing grammar.

24. The system of claim 23, in which the parsing grammar is determined based on at least one of:

a characteristic of the passage and user preference.

25. The system of claim 24, in which the characteristic of the passage is at least one of:

a language and a genre characteristic.

26. The system of claim 20, in which the note is comprised of grammatical sentences.

27. The system of claim 20, in which the passage is at least one sentence.

28. The system of claim 27, in which the at least one sentence is comprised of at least two words.

29. The system of claim 22, in which the meaning structure is a packed meaning structure.

30. The system of claim 29, in which the packed meaning structure is at least one of:

a logical formula in the predicate calculus, a minimal recursion semantic structure;

a head-driven phrase structure and an f-structure.

31. The system of claim 21, in which the matches are determined based on at least one of:

literal, conceptual, distributional, statistical, and co-occurrence similarity.

32. The system of claim 31, in which the conceptual similarity is based on a lexicon;

an ontology;

statistics and a machine-readable information source.

33. The system of claim 20, in which the passage is converted into at least one meaning structure using a parsing grammar.

34. The system of claim 20, in which the condensation rules are re-write rules.

35. The system of claim 20, in which the passage is converted into a packed meaning structure and the condensation transformations are applied to the packed structure based on meaning distortion constraints.

36. The system of claim 35, in which the meaning distortion constraints adjust the condensation of the meaning structures characterized as downward monotonic.

37. The system of claim 36, in which the meaning distortion constraint adjustment is at least one of:

preventing condensation and adjusting the meaning in the meaning structure.

38. A means for user-interest sensitive note-taking comprising:

a means for determining a passage;

a means for determining user interest information;

a means for determining condensation transformations; and

a means for determining a note based on the determined passage, the user interest information, and the condensation transformations.

39. A carrier wave encoded to transmit a control program, useable to program a computer for user-interest sensitive note-taking, to a device for executing the program, the control program comprising:

instructions for determining a passage;

instructions for determining user interest information;

instructions for determining condensation transformations; and

instructions for determining a note based on the determined passage,

the user interest information, and the condensation transformations.

40. Computer readable storage medium comprising:

computer readable program code embodied on the computer readable storage medium, the computer readable program code usable to program a computer for user-interest sensitive note-taking comprising the steps of;

determining a passage;

determining user interest information;

determining condensation transformations; and

determining a note based on the determined passage, the user interest information, and the condensation transformations.

41. A user-interest sensitive note comprising:

a passage portion consisting of text to be condensed;

a condensate portion associated with a reading of the meaning of the passage portion of the text; and

which is based on one or more indicators of user interest.

42. The note of claim 41, further comprising at least one selectable user interface component operable to adjust the display of a portion of the user-interest sensitive note.

43. The note of claim 42, wherein the displayed portion of the user-interest sensitive note is at least one of:

the passage portion and the condensate portion.

44. The note of claim 42, wherein the user selectable interface component is at least one of:

a button, a link and a uniform resource locator.

45. The note of claim 41, wherein the condensate portion contains information from the passage portion.

46. The note of claim 41, wherein the passage portion is displayed in at least one of:

a window;

a dialog box;

a pop-up-box and a status area.

47. The note of claim 41, wherein the selectable user interface component is responsive to at least one of:

voice, touch and eye-gaze input.

48. A user interest sensitive note comprising:

a condensate display portion that displays the meaning of an associated passage of text based on at least one indicator of user interest; and

a passage display portion that displays the passage.

49. The method of claim 48, in which the condensate display portion is positioned adjacent to the passage display portion.

50. The method of claim 48, in which the passage display portion is at least one of:

a file and a display.

51. The method of claim 48, in which the condensate display portion is a margin of a word processing application display.

52. A user-interest sensitive note-viewing system comprising:

a memory;

an input/output circuit that retrieves stored user-interest sensitive notes;

and a processor that displays the user-interest sensitive note;

53. The system of claim 52, in which the input/output circuit retrieves user-interest information and the processor dynamically updates the condensate portion of the user-interest sensitive note based on the retrieved user-interest information.

54. The system of claim 53, in which the user interest sensitive note is comprised of a condensate portion.

56. A method of user-interest sensitive note-taking comprising the steps of:

determining a passage;

determining user interest information;

determining condensation transformations;

determining non-local references in the passage;

determining a note based on the determined passage, the user interest information, the non-local references and the condensation transformations.