CONTEXT-BASED COMMUNITY-DRIVEN SUGGESTIONS FOR MEDIA ANNOTATION

• US 20080195657A1
• Filed: 02/08/2007
• Published: 08/14/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 02/08/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: King, Simon P., Davis, Marc E., Naaman, Mor, Nair, Rahul, Ahern, Shane P., Yang, Jeannie Hui-I
• Granted Patent: US 7,739,304 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/30 in albums, collections or shared content, e.g. social network photos or video
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 2201/10 Recognition assisted with metadata

Abstract

Disclosed are apparatus and methods for facilitating annotation of media objects by a user. Mechanisms present a user with an easily usable set of annotation suggestions that are most likely to be relevant to the particular user and/or media context. In general, existing annotations are analyzed to determine a set of suggested annotations. Annotation suggestions for a particular user are based on an analysis of the relevance, to the particular user, of existing annotations of one or more media objects so that the most likely relevant annotations are presented as suggested annotations. In particular embodiments, this analysis depends on whether the existing annotations were created and/or selected by the particular user, a member of the particular user'"'"'s social network, or members of the general public.

Claims

1. A method of facilitating media annotation, comprising:

(a) for a particular user, analyzing a set of existing free-form annotations that are associated with a plurality of media objects based on a context and the social community of the particular user so as to determine a ranked list of annotations that is ordered by likely relevance to the context of the particular user; and

(b) presenting a highest ranked subset of the ranked list of annotations to the particular user as a list of suggested annotations that are selectable by the user to annotate one or more media objects.

2. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising periodically repeating operations (a) and (b) for the particular user so as to dynamically update the list of suggested annotations based on the context and the social community of the particular user as changes occur to the set of existing annotations.

3. A method as recited in claim 2, wherein operations (a) and (b) are repeated after expiration of a predefined time period, when the particular user changes a location, or when a user initiates operations (a) and (b).

4. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the existing annotations are associated with multiple sources.

5. A method as recited in claim 4, wherein the multiple sources include two or more of a media object organization source, a personal media object collection source, a web-based media object collection source, a blog source, or a webpage source.

6. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the ranked list of annotations is based on prioritizing the existing annotations into decreasing levels of relevance based on whether each existing annotation was used by the particular user, a member of the particular user'"'"'s social network, or the general public.

7. A method as recited in claim 6, wherein each annotation of the ranked list of annotations is associated with a current location of the particular user.

8. A method as recited in claim 7, wherein the ranked list of annotations is based on prioritizing the existing annotations into increasing levels of relevance based on how recently in time the existing annotations were selected or used.

9. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the ranked list of annotations is based on parsing through at least some of the existing annotations to extract text that is suitable for annotating or describing a media object.

10. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the suggested annotations are presented in a manner that is based on the type of device on which the suggested annotations are being presented.

11. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the existing annotations are analyzed without requiring that the existing annotations have a fixed format or belong to a fixed category.

12. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein presenting the suggested annotations includes storing the suggested annotations for access by the particular user.

13. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein presenting the suggested annotations includes displaying the suggested annotations on a display of a device that is being used by the particular user.

14. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein analyzing the set of existing annotations is accomplished by:

assigning different weight values to each existing annotation that is associated with different ones of the following categories;

(i) existing annotations that were used selected by the particular user, (ii) existing annotations that were used or selected by a member of the particular user'"'"'s social network, and (iii) existing annotations that were used or selected by a member of the general public, wherein the weight value for the category (i) is higher than the weight value for the category (ii) which is higher than the weight value for the category (iii);

assigning different weight values to existing annotations that are within different predefined time periods, wherein the weight values are higher for more recent time periods than for less recent time periods or for one or more specific time periods;

determining a total of the weighted counts of each similar annotation from the existing annotations; and

ranking the totals from highest total to lowest total to form the ranked list of suggested annotations.

15. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising receiving a selection of a particular annotation by the user, wherein the user selects the particular annotation from the list by clicking on or checking the particular annotation with a mouse, stylus or other input mechanism, dragging the particular annotation to a media object, entering a combination of letters for the particular annotation via a number pad of a portable or cellular phone, entering only a subset of the letters of the particular annotation via the number pad whereby the remaining letters are automatically completed, or entering the letters of the particular annotation by only tapping each number button one time whereby the particular annotation is automatically determined.

16. An apparatus for facilitating media annotation, comprising:

at least one a processor; and

at least one memory, the at least one processor and/or memory being configured for;

(a) for a particular user, analyzing a set of existing free-form annotations that are associated with a plurality of media objects based on a context and the social community of the particular user so as to determine a ranked list of annotations that is ordered by likely relevance to the context of the particular user; and

(b) presenting a highest ranked subset of the ranked list of annotations to the particular user as a list of suggested annotations that are selectable by the user to annotate one or more media objects.

17. An apparatus as recited in claim 16, the at least one processor and/or memory being further configured for periodically repeating operations (a) and (b) for the particular user so as to dynamically update the list of suggested annotations based on the context and the social community of the particular user as changes occur to the set of existing annotations.

18. An apparatus as recited in claim 16, wherein the existing annotations are associated with multiple sources.

19. An apparatus as recited in claim 18, wherein the multiple sources include two or more of a media object organization source, a personal media object collection source, a web-based media object collection source, a blog source, or a webpage source.

20. An apparatus as recited in claim 16, wherein the ranked list of annotations is based on prioritizing the existing annotations into decreasing levels of relevance based on whether each existing annotation was used by the particular user, a member of the particular user'"'"'s social network, or the general public.

21. An apparatus as recited in claim 20, wherein each annotation of the ranked list of annotations is associated with a current location of the particular user.

22. An apparatus as recited in claim 21, wherein the ranked list of annotations is based on prioritizing the existing annotations into increasing levels of relevance based on how recently in time the existing annotations were selected or used.

23. An apparatus as recited in claim 16, wherein the ranked list of annotations is based on parsing through at least some of the existing annotations to extract text that is suitable for annotating or describing a media object.

24. An apparatus as recited in claim 16, wherein the suggested annotations are presented in a manner that is based on the type of device on which the suggested annotations are being presented.

25. An apparatus as recited in claim 16, wherein the existing annotations are analyzed without requiring that the existing annotations have a fixed format or belong to a fixed category.

26. An apparatus as recited in claim 16, wherein analyzing the set of existing annotations is accomplished by:

assigning different weight values to each existing annotation that is associated with different ones of the following categories;

(i) existing annotations that were used or selected by the particular user, (ii) existing annotations that were used or selected by a member of the particular user'"'"'s social network, and (iii) existing annotations that were used or selected by a member of the general public, wherein the weight value for the category (i) is higher than the weight value for the category (ii) which is higher than the weight value for the category (iii);

assigning different weight values to existing annotations that are within different predefined time periods, wherein the weight values are higher for more recent time periods than for less recent time periods or for one or more specific time periods;

determining a total of the weighted counts of each similar annotation from the existing annotations; and

ranking the totals from highest total to lowest total to form the ranked list of suggested annotations.

27. At least one computer readable storage medium having computer program instructions stored thereon that are arranged to perform the following operations:

(a) for a particular user, analyzing a set of existing free-form annotations that are associated with a plurality of media objects based on a context and the social community of the particular user so as to determine a ranked list of annotations that is ordered by likely relevance to the context of the particular user; and

(b) presenting a highest ranked subset of the ranked list of annotations to the particular user as a list of suggested annotations that are selectable by the user to annotate one or more media objects.

28. At least one computer readable storage medium as recited in claim 27, the computer program instructions stored thereon being further arranged to periodically repeat operations (a) and (b) for the particular user so as to dynamically update the list of suggested annotations based on the context and the social community of the particular user as changes occur to the set of existing annotations.

29. At least one computer readable storage medium as recited in claim 28, wherein operations (a) and (b) are repeated after expiration of a predefined time period, when the particular user changes a location, or when a user initiates operations (a) and (b).

30. At least one computer readable storage medium as recited in claim 27, wherein the existing annotations are associated with multiple sources.

31. At least one computer readable storage medium as recited in claim 30, wherein the multiple sources include two or more of a media object organization source, a personal media object collection source, a web-based media object collection source, a blog source, or a webpage source.

32. At least one computer readable storage medium as recited in claim 27, wherein the ranked list of annotations is based on prioritizing the existing annotations into decreasing levels of relevance based on whether each existing annotation was used by the particular user, a member of the particular user'"'"'s social network, or the general public.

33. At least one computer readable storage medium as recited in claim 32, wherein each annotation of the ranked list of annotations is associated with a current location of the particular user.

34. At least one computer readable storage medium as recited in claim 33, wherein the ranked list of annotations is based on prioritizing the existing annotations into increasing levels of relevance based on how recently in time the existing annotations were selected or used.

35. At least one computer readable storage medium as recited in claim 27, wherein the ranked list of annotations is based on parsing through at least some of the existing annotations to extract text that is suitable for annotating or describing a media object.

36. At least one computer readable storage medium as recited in claim 27, wherein the suggested annotations are presented in a manner that is based on the type of device on which the suggested annotations are being presented.

37. At least one computer readable storage medium as recited in claim 27, wherein the existing annotations are analyzed without requiring that the existing annotations have a fixed format or belong to a fixed category.

38. At least one computer readable storage medium as recited in claim 27, wherein analyzing the set of existing annotations is accomplished by:

assigning different weight values to each existing annotation that is associated with different ones of the following categories;

(i) existing annotations that were used or selected by the particular user, (ii) existing annotations that were used or selected by a member of the particular user'"'"'s social network, and (iii) existing annotations that were used or selected by a member of the general public, wherein the weight value for the category (i) is higher than the weight value for the category (ii) which is higher than the weight value for the category (iii);

assigning different weight values to existing annotations that are within different predefined time periods, wherein the weight values are higher for more recent time periods than for less recent time periods or for one or more specific time periods;

determining a total of the weighted counts of each similar annotation from the existing annotations; and

ranking the totals from highest total to lowest total to form the ranked list of suggested annotations.

39. At least one computer readable storage medium as recited in claim 27, the computer program instructions stored thereon being further arranged to receive a selection of a particular annotation by the user, wherein the user selects the particular annotation from the list by clicking on or checking the particular annotation with a mouse, stylus or other input mechanism, dragging the particular annotation to a media object, entering a combination of letters for the particular annotation via a number pad of a portable or cellular phone, entering only a subset of the letters of the particular annotation via the number pad whereby the remaining letters are automatically completed, or entering the letters of the particular annotation by only tapping each number button one time whereby the particular annotation is automatically determined.