CONTENT AND OBJECT METADATA BASED SEARCH IN E-READER ENVIRONMENT

• US 20140172825A1
• Filed: 12/13/2012
• Published: 06/19/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/13/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Narayanan, Raman, Liu, Ming, Nickolov, Radoslav, Zeng, Wei, Gil, Aleksandr, Velagapudi, Suresh
• Granted Patent: US 9,298,712 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/722
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/41 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/43 Querying
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/438 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/48 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/58 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9032 Query formulation

Abstract

Metadata based enhanced search capabilities are provided in conjunction with e-reader experience. Metadata associated with content and objects within displayed content is created based on default and/or custom rules. The metadata such as attributes, tags, etc. is indexed and used to augment search queries based on selected portions of the displayed content. Additional search augmentation is performed based on user-defined metadata or processing of objects such as image recognition of image objects and similar processes.

Claims

1. A method executed on a computing device for providing metadata based search in an e-reader environment, the method comprising:

determining search terms based on a selected portion of displayed content;

generating a query for a search based on the selected portion;

determining relevant metadata associated with one or more objects associated with the search terms; and

augmenting the query based on the metadata.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

indexing the metadata prior to the augmentation.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining the relevant metadata associated with one or more of images, graphics, audio objects, video objects, textual objects, and interactive objects within a predefined vicinity of the selected portion.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining one or more attributes of each relevant object from the metadata.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the attributes include one or more of a dimension of the object, a type of the object, a title of the object.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining the relevant metadata from one or more tags associated with each relevant object.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the metadata includes one or more of a type of an audio/video object, a title of the audio/video object, and a duration of the audio/video object.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

processing the one or more objects to retrieve metadata.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein processing the one or more objects includes:

performing optical character recognition on an image object to retrieve one or more key terms from the object.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

retrieving one or more key terms from one of an audio object and a video object.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating the query in response to detecting activation of a search control following the selection of the portion of the displayed content.

12. A computing device for providing metadata based search in an e-reader environment, the computing device comprising:

a memory configured to store instructions; and

a processor coupled to the memory, the processor executing an e-reader application in conjunction with the instructions stored in the memory, wherein the e-reader application is configured to;

determine search terms based on a selected portion of displayed content;

generate a query for a search based on the selected portion;

determine relevant metadata associated with one or more of images, graphics, audio objects, video objects, textual objects, and interactive objects associated with the search terms;

index the metadata; and

augment the query based on the metadata.

13. The computing device of claim 12, wherein the metadata is created for the one or more objects based on one or more of a default rule and a custom rule.

14. The computing device of claim 12, wherein the metadata is user-defined metadata provided through a search user interface managed by the e-reader application.

15. The computing device of claim 12, wherein the e-reader application is further configured to:

enable interaction for a user through one or more of a touch input, a gesture input, a mouse input, a keyboard input, a gyroscopic input, and an eye-tracking input.

16. The computing device of claim 12, wherein the e-reader application is one of a locally executed application and a client application accessing an e-reader service.

17. A computer-readable memory device with instructions stored thereon for providing metadata based search in an e-reader environment, the instructions comprising:

determining search terms based on a selected portion of displayed content;

generating a query for a search based on the selected portion;

determining relevant metadata associated with one or more images, graphics, audio objects, video objects, textual objects, and interactive objects within a predefined vicinity of the selected portion by processing the one or more objects to retrieve metadata;

indexing the metadata; and

augmenting the query based on the metadata.

18. The computer-readable memory device of claim 17, wherein the instructions further comprise:

generating the query in response to detecting one of the selection of the portion of the displayed content and activation of a search control following the selection of the portion of the displayed content.

19. The computer-readable memory device of claim 17, wherein the instructions further comprise:

categorizing the search results based on the metadata.

20. The computer-readable memory device of claim 17, wherein the instructions further comprise:

enabling execution of the search in one or more of web resources, a user library associated with an e-reader application, a collection of user documents, and a collection of user notes generated through the e-reader application.