Progressive reference system, method and apparatus

• US 20090106206A1
• Filed: 09/24/2008
• Published: 04/23/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/01/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kenneth Nathaniel Sherman
• Original Assignee: Kenneth Nathaniel Sherman
• Inventors: Sherman, Kenneth Nathaniel
• Granted Patent: US 9,547,994 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/31 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/316 Indexing structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/328 Management therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/169 Annotation, e.g. comment data or footnotes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/242 Dictionaries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/253 Grammatical analysis; Style critique
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/284 Lexical analysis, e.g. tokenisation or collocates
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 5/00 Electrically-operated educational appliances working with questions and answers G09B7/00; simulators G09B9/00; advertising or displaying in general G09F

Abstract

A written document (hereinafter referred to as a “work,” on electronic format which includes, stories, novels, education texts, biographies, compilations, collections, anthologies, tracts, and any other traditional format for relatively extensive texts) provides access to reference, bibliography and/or definition material through an electronic software capability associated with the work. Depending upon reader access information or characteristics (e.g., age, grade, proficiency, or position within the work or any other identifiable reader characteristic or access limitation), any request for reference material, definitions, explanations, translations, or other material provided in the associated software capability is automatically limited by system acknowledgement of the reader access information or characteristics. As the reader'"'"'s access information or characteristics change, the quality and/or quantity and/or format of requested information with respect to a work changes.

Claims

1. A method of a user accessing information relevant to a text being read by inputting search parameters to a database while an electronic monitor displays at least a portion of a document or text on a screen while a reader reads the document or text on the screen including steps of:

1. The reader selecting a word in the text;

2. The word being forwarded to a microprocessor;

3. Software on the microprocessor identifying a previous occurrence of that word in the document or the text; and

4. The microprocessor sending data or a command to the monitor to display the previous occurrence of the word along with all, or part of, a grammatical segment containing the previous occurrence of that word.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the reader selects the word by highlighting or clicking on the word or by touching a section of a touchscreen containing the word.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the processor downloads a complete text and the software capable of identifying a previous occurrence is already executable by the processor.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the a web browser or reader in communication with the monitor accesses an electronic book or networked connection to a book.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the display of the previous occurrence of the word, with all or part of a sentence the word appears in, is presented on a same monitor screen as the sentence in which the selected word occurs.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the display of the previous occurrence of the word, with all or part of its sentence, is presented on the same monitor screen as a sentence in which the word occurs so as not to occlude, the sentence in which the selected word appears.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the previous occurrence of the word along with all, or part of a sentence containing the previous occurrence of the word is audially presented to the reader by an electronic device.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the device is selected from the group consisting of an electronic audio device, a mobile phone, a computer, and an electronic book.

9. A system for enabling search of a term or word that is part of a written text comprising a processor and video monitor in communication with the processor, and reader input capability to the processor, the system having a processor that enables performance of a method including reading text on a screen comprising:

a reader identifying a specific word in the text and initiating a search function for that word;

a processor searching for and causing display of a first previous occurrence of a specifically reader-identified word;

a processor searching for and causing display of a first previous occurrence of a specifically reader-identified word and display of all or part of a sentence containing the previous occurrence of the specifically reader-identified word.

10. The system of claim 9 wherein the defined characteristic input to the electronic database relates specifically to a position of the user with respect to the progression of the user in the primary work, a level of authorized participation in access to the source of information, or qualification by level of performance.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein at positions of the user with respect to the progression of the user in the primary work, multiple sources of information relating to the primary work are available on a topic, and the system upon request by a user selects a only one source of information on the topic using the progression of the user in the primary work as a basis for selecting the only one source of information from among the multiple sources of information.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein as the user progresses through the primary work, the system provides more information on the topic and provides the more information on the topic to the user upon request of the user.

13. The system of claim 10 wherein the processor enables a user to makes a word selection by positioning a cursor and activating the cursor or by touchscreen action on a display.

14. The system of claim 10 wherein a program enabling the method is executed by a processor on a computer or microprocessor.

15. The system of claim 10 wherein a processor in the system accesses a program that enables the method through a web browser.

16. The system of claim 10 wherein the method causes display of a previous occurrence of the specifically selected word on a screen, with all or part of a sentence within which the specifically selected word appears while simultaneously presenting on the screen a later portion of a text in which specifically selected word occurs.

17. The system of claim 10 including an audio data entry function and voice translation software enabling a specifically identified word to be entered by audio verbal entry.

18. The system of claim 17 wherein audio data entry is available from audio output from a device selected from the group consisting of an IPod®

player, a mobile phone, a computer with speakers, or an electronic book with speakers.

19. The system of claim 18 wherein the method causes display of a previous occurrence of the specifically selected word on a screen, with all or part of a sentence within which the specifically selected word appears while simultaneously presenting on the screen a later portion of a text in which specifically selected word occurs.

20. The system of claim 10 wherein the processor enables a method wherein a user can iterate backwards, repeatedly, by selecting any word in a display of a previous occurrence of the specifically selected word, and the processor will identify and cause a display of the previous occurrence of that word along with all, or part of, the sentence containing the previous occurrence of that word, and a timing function is present in the system to cause display of the specifically identified word display to terminate.

21. A method of providing an electronic database source of information of a primary work to a user upon request to a data processing computer system comprising:

a) the user entering access identification to enter an electronic compilation of multiple sources of information relating to a primary work;

b) enabling the user to alter scope of information within the electronic database source of information relating to the primary work,

c) a particular source of one of the multiple sources of information being enabled for the user dependent upon attributes of the access identification;

d) multiple sources of information on a specific topic in the primary work being available to users at any stage of progression through the primary work; and

e) the electronic database source providing only a single source of information from among the multiple sources of information on the topic upon request by a user, the data processing computer system selecting the only a single source of information based upon the attributes of the access identification; and

wherein a processor enables performance of a method including reading text on a screen including;

a reader identifying a specific word in the text and initiating a search function for that word;

a processor searching for and causing display of a first previous occurrence of a specifically reader-identified word;

a processor searching for and causing display of a first previous occurrence of a specifically reader-identified word and display of all or part of a sentence containing the previous occurrence of the specifically reader-identified word.