Indexing methods, systems, and computer program products for virtual three-dimensional books

• US 7,069,518 B2
• Filed: 12/21/2000
• Issued: 06/27/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Xerox Corporation (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Xerox Corporation (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Inventors: Gossweiler, III, Richard Carl, Woodruff, Allison Gyle, MacKinlay, Jock Douglas, Chi, Ed H., Hong, Lichan, Card, Stuart Kent
• Primary Examiner(s): Lo, Weilun
• Assistant Examiner(s): Chuong, Truc T.
• Application Number:
  US09/741,035
• Publication Number:
  US 20020083101A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,014 Days
• Field of Search: 345/776, 345/781, 345/782, 345/767, 345/752, 345/757, 715/752, 715/757, 715/767, 715/776, 715/781, 715/782, 715/750, 715/778
• US Class Current: 715/776
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/00 Input arrangements for transferring data to be processed into a form capable of being handled by the computer; Output arrangements for transferring data from processing unit to output unit, e.g. interface arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04815 Interaction with a metaphor-based environment or interaction object displayed as three-dimensional, e.g. changing the user viewpoint with respect to the environment or object

Abstract

A system is described for displaying images of a virtual three-dimensional book having one or more virtual pages. The system comprises a display system capable of executing a display program wherein images of the virtual three-dimensional book are produced on the display system. The display system may include a folding function, whereby a segment of a virtual page is displayed as at least partially folding backward form a surface of the display system. Additionally, based on one or more search terms, the display system may include an indexing function for creating a customized index and/or a table of contents function for creating a customized table of contents. Moreover, a dynamic bookmark function may be provided for displaying one or more dynamic bookmarks to a virtual three-dimensional book. Also disclosed is a computer program product comprising a computer usable medium having computer readable code embodied therein for producing images of a virtual three-dimensional book.

Claims

1. A system for displaying images of a virtual three-dimensional book having one or more virtual pages and a plurality of words, the system comprising:

a display system capable of executing a display program, wherein images of the virtual three-dimensional book are produced on the display system, and

wherein the display system includes a program of instructions for;

computing an inter-term similarity matrix for words in the virtual three-dimensional book,

receiving user input identifying one or more terms of interest,

computing degree of interest values for the words in the virtual three-dimensional book using the inter-term similarity matrix, and

reformulating an existing index as a function of the one or more terms of interest and the computed degree of interest values to create a customized index;

wherein words having a degree of interest value beyond a threshold degree of interest value are included in the customized index.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the customized index is displayed as a virtual page of the virtual three-dimensional book.

3. The system of claim 2 wherein the virtual page containing the customized index is removed from the virtual three-dimensional book so as to be viewable simultaneously with the virtual three-dimensional book.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the one or more terms of interest are read from a user input box.

5. The system of claim 4 wherein the program of instructions for creating a customized index further includes instructions for modifying an existing index for the virtual three-dimensional book.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the program of instructions further comprises instructions for creating a customized index including instructions for creating the customized index based on degree of interest values computed for each word in the virtual three-dimensional book.

7. The system of claim 6 wherein the degree of interest values are maximized for the one or more terms of interest which appear in the existing index for the three-dimensional book.

8. The system of claim 6 wherein the degree of interest values are adjusted based on a method of spreading activation.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein the method of spreading activation utilizes the inter-term similarity matrix for words in the virtual three-dimensional book.

10. The system of claim 8 wherein the method of spreading activation computes degree of interest values for each word in the virtual three-dimensional book as a function of cocitation strengths.

11. The system of claim 6 wherein the degree of interest values are adjusted based on a fisheye lens algorithm.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein the fisheye lens algorithm considers a relationship between entries and sub-entries in an existing index for the virtual three-dimensional book.

13. The system of claim 6 wherein words included in the customized index are displayed in two or more text formats based on their corresponding degree of interest value.

14. The system of claim 6 wherein the threshold degree of interest value is adjusted to tailor a size of the customized index.

15. The system of claim 1 wherein a virtual page location of the one or more terms of interest may be designated by one or more dynamic bookmarks.

16. The system of claim 18 wherein selecting a dynamic bookmark opens the virtual three-dimensional book to a corresponding virtual page location.

17. The system of claim 1 wherein the program of instructions further includes instructions for adjusting an amount of information displayed on the customized index so that the customized index will fit within an allotted display space.

18. The system of claim 17 wherein the allotted display space is a single page.

19. A system for displaying images of a virtual three-dimensional book having one or more virtual pages and a plurality of words, the system comprising:

a display system capable of executing a display program, wherein images of the virtual three-dimensional book are produced on the display system, and

wherein the display system includes a program of instructions for;

computing an inter-term similarity matrix for words in the virtual three-dimensional book,

receiving user input identifying one or more terms of interest,

computing degree of interest values for the words in the virtual three-dimensional book using the inter-term similarity matrix, and

creating a customized table of contents using the computed degree of interest values, wherein the customized table of contents comprises a page that cross-references the one or more terms of interest with corresponding locations within the virtual three-dimensional book;

wherein words having a degree of interest value beyond a threshold degree of interest value are included in the customized table of contents.

20. The system of claim 19 wherein the customized table of contents is displayed as a virtual page of the virtual three-dimensional book.

21. The system of claim 20 wherein the virtual page containing the customized table of contents is removed from the virtual three-dimensional book so as to be viewable simultaneously with the virtual three-dimensional book.

22. The system of claim 19 wherein the one or more terms of interest are read from a user input box.

23. The system of claim 19 wherein the program of instructions further comprises instructions for modifying an existing table of contents for the virtual three-dimensional book.

24. The system of claim 19 wherein the program of instructions further include instructions for creating the customized table of contents based on the computed degree of interest values for each word in the virtual three-dimensional book.

25. The system of claim 24 wherein the computed degree of interest values are maximized for the one or more terms of interest which appear in an existing table of contents for the three-dimensional book.

26. The system of claim 24 wherein the degree of interest values are adjusted based on a method of spreading activation.

27. The system of claim 26 wherein the method of spreading activation utilizes an inter-term similarity matrix for words in the virtual three-dimensional book.

28. The system of claim 26 wherein the method of spreading activation computes degree of interest values for each word in the virtual three-dimensional book as a function of cocitation strengths.

29. The system of claim 24 wherein the degree of interest values are adjusted based on a fisheye lens algorithm.

30. The system of claim 29 wherein the fisheye lens algorithm considers a relationship between entries and sub-entries in an existing table of contents for the virtual three-dimensional book.

31. The system of claim 24 wherein words included in the customized table of contents are displayed in two or more text formats based on their corresponding degree of interest value.

32. The system of claim 24 wherein the threshold degree of interest value is adjusted to tailor a size of the customized table of contents.

33. A method of creating a customized index based on one or more terms of interest in a virtual three-dimensional book having one or more virtual pages and a plurality of words, the method comprising:

creating a general index for a virtual three-dimensional book;

creating an inter-term similarity matrix for a plurality of words;

reading the one or more terms of interest;

matching the one or more terms of interest with identical words in the general index and setting a degree of interest value for the identical words to a maximum value;

performing a method of spreading activation to create a degree of interest value for words not matched in the matching step;

adjusting the degree of interest values created in the performing step by applying a modified fisheye algorithm to the degree of interest values, wherein the modified fisheye algorithm assigns a variable degree of interest to one or both of a parent entry and a sibling entry based on an entry-subentry structure of the general index;

selecting one or more words having a degree of interest value greater than a threshold value; and

displaying the one or more words selected in the selecting step.

34. The method of claim 33 wherein the threshold value is iteratively adjusted to adjust a size of the customized index.

35. The method of claim 33 wherein the method of spreading activation computes degree of interest values for each word in the virtual three-dimensional book as a function of cocitation strengths.

36. A computer program product comprising:

a computer usable medium having computer readable code embodied therein for producing images of a virtual three-dimensional book having one or more virtual pages on a display device, the computer readable code comprising instructions for;

computing an inter-term similarity matrix for words in the virtual three-dimensional book,

receiving user input identifying one or more terms of interest,

computing degree of interest values for words in the virtual three-dimensional book using the inter-term similarity matrix, and

reformulating an existing index as a function of the one or more terms of interest and the computed degree of interest values to create a customized index;

wherein words having a degree of interest value beyond a threshold degree of interest value are included in the customized index.

37. The computer program product of claim 36 wherein the customized index is displayed as a virtual page of the virtual three-dimensional book.

38. The computer program product of claim 37 wherein the virtual page containing the customized index is removed from the virtual three-dimensional book so as to be viewable simultaneously with the virtual three-dimensional book.

39. The computer program product of claim 36 wherein the computer readable code further comprises instructions for receiving the one or more terms of interest as input.

40. The computer program product of claim 36 wherein the instructions include instructions for modifying an existing index for the virtual three-dimensional book.

41. The computer program product of claim 36 wherein the instructions further include instructions for creating the customized index based on degree of interest values computed for each word in the virtual three-dimensional book.

42. The computer program product of claim 41 wherein the degree of interest values are maximized for the one or more terms of interest which appear in the existing index for the three-dimensional book.

43. The computer program product of claim 41 wherein the degree of interest values are adjusted based on a method of spreading activation.

44. The computer program product of claim 43 wherein the method of spreading activation utilizes the inter-term similarity matrix for words in the virtual three-dimensional book.

45. The computer program product of claim 41 wherein the degree of interest values are adjusted based on a fisheye lens algorithm.

46. The computer program product of claim 45 wherein the fisheye lens algorithm considers a relationship between entries and sub-entries in an existing index for the virtual three-dimensional book.

47. The computer program product of claim 45 wherein words included in the customized index are displayed in two or more text formats based on their corresponding degree of interest value.

48. The computer program product of claim 45 wherein the threshold degree of interest value is adjusted to tailor a size of the customized index.

49. The computer program product of claim 36 wherein a virtual page location of the one or more terms of interest may be designated by one or more dynamic bookmarks.

50. The computer program product of claim 49 wherein selecting a dynamic bookmark opens the virtual three-dimensional book to a corresponding virtual page location.

51. A computer program product comprising:

a computer usable medium having computer readable code embodied therein for producing images of a virtual three-dimensional book having one or more virtual pages on a display device, the computer readable code comprising instructions for;

computing an inter-term similarity matrix for words in the virtual three-dimensional book,

receiving user input identifying one or more terms of interest,

computing degree of interest values for words in the virtual three-dimensional book using the inter-term similarity matrix, and

creating a customized table of contents using the computed degree of interest values, wherein the customized table of contents comprises a page that cross-references the one or more terms of interest with corresponding locations within the virtual three-dimensional book;

wherein words having a degree of interest value beyond a threshold degree of interest value are included in the customized table of contents.

52. The computer program product of claim 51 wherein the customized table of contents is displayed as a virtual page of the virtual three-dimensional book.

53. The computer program product of claim 52 wherein the virtual page containing the customized table of contents is removed from the virtual three-dimensional book so as to be viewable simultaneously with the virtual three-dimensional book.

54. The computer program product of claim 53 wherein the one or more terms of interest are read from a user input box.

55. The computer program product of claim 51 wherein the instructions for creating a customized table of contents comprise instructions for modifying an existing table of contents for the virtual three-dimensional book.

56. The computer program product of claim 51 wherein the instructions for creating a customized table of contents include instructions for creating the customized table of contents based on degree of interest values for each word in the virtual three-dimensional book.

57. The computer program product of claim 56 wherein the degree of interest values are maximized for terms of interest which appear in an existing table of contents for the three-dimensional book.

58. The computer program product of claim 56 wherein the degree of interest values are adjusted based on a method of spreading activation.

59. The computer program product of claim 58 wherein the method of spreading activation utilizes an inter-term similarity matrix for words in the virtual three-dimensional book.

60. The computer program product of claim 56 wherein the degree of interest values are adjusted based on a fisheye lens algorithm.

61. The computer program product of claim 60 wherein the fisheye lens algorithm considers a relationship between entries and sub-entries in an existing table of contents for the virtual three-dimensional book.

62. The computer program product of claim 56 wherein words included in the customized table of contents are displayed in two or more text formats based on their corresponding degree of interest value.

63. The computer program product of claim 56 wherein the threshold degree of interest value is adjusted to tailor a size of the customized table of contents.