Method and apparatus for annotating a document

• US 7,366,979 B2
• Filed: 03/09/2001
• Issued: 04/29/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/09/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Copernicus Investments, LLC
• Original Assignee: Copernicus Investments, LLC
• Inventors: Gustman, Samuel, Spielberg, Steven
• Primary Examiner(s): Hutton; Doug
• Assistant Examiner(s): TRAN, QUOC A
• Application Number:
  US09/802,395
• Publication Number:
  US 20020129057A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,608 Days
• Field of Search: 715/512, 715/500.1, 715/727, 715/728, 715/729, 709/206, 345/473, 707/102, 379/88.13, 379/88.14, 235/375, 704/246, 704/260, 704/235, 704/270.1, 704/271
• US Class Current: 715/230
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/165 Management of the audio stream, e.g. setting of volume, audio stream path
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/169 Annotation, e.g. comment data or footnotes
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/00 Speech synthesis; Text to speech systems
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46

Abstract

An apparatus for annotating a document is presented. The invention allows the addition of verbal annotations to a digital document such as a movie script, book, or any other type of document. In an embodiment, the invention the stores audio comments in data storage as an annotation linked to a location in the document being annotated. The invention may be implemented in a variety of smart mobile devices, including automotive entertainment systems, cell phones, and other portable computing devices.

Claims

1. An apparatus for annotating a document comprising:

a mobile apparatus;

data storage coupled to said mobile apparatus, said data storage configured to store a text document and a plurality of audio comments, each of said stored plurality of audio comments annotating said text document and being linked to said text document;

a document processing engine coupled to said mobile apparatus, said document processing engine configured to obtain an audio content conversion of said stored text document and at least a subset of said stored plurality of audio comments for playback as an audio source; and

an annotator coupled to said mobile apparatus;

said mobile apparatus comprising;

an audio playback interface configured to receive at least one command for controlling playback of said audio source from a user;

an audio input interface configured to obtain at least one new audio comment from said user at a point in said playback specified by said user,

said annotator being configured to cause said new audio comment to be saved via said data storage as an annotation linked to a location in said text document based on said point in said playback specified by said user,

wherein each of said plurality of audio comments annotating said text document is stored via a file structure comprising an annotations names file, said annotations names file comprising an entry for each user annotating said text document, wherein for each user identified in said annotations names file said file structure further comprises an annotations index file and an annotations file, and wherein said annotations file comprises at least one entry for a comment annotating said text document by said identified user and said annotations index file relates a location in said text document to said comment by said identified user.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said data storage comprises removable media.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein said removable media comprises flash memory.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said audio source comprises a streaming media file.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said annotations names file corresponding to said text document includes an entry identifying said mobile apparatus user.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein another audio comment obtained from said user annotates one of said plurality of audio comments, said file structure further comprising an annotations names file associated with said annotated comment, wherein said annotated comment'"'"'s annotations names file has an associated annotations index file and an associated annotations file, and wherein said associated annotations index file relates a location in said annotated comment to said other audio comment.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein said file structure comprises a hierarchical tree structure which comprises:

a document file corresponding to said text document at a top level;

said annotations names file corresponding to said document file at a second level below said top level;

said annotations index file and said annotations file corresponding to said annotations names file at a third level below said second level,

wherein said third level is followed by some number of sub-levels, each sub-level corresponding to a comment and comprising a top level comprising an annotations names file identifying a name of at least one user annotating said comment, and an annotations index file and an annotations file associated with said comment-associated annotations names file.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein each audio comment of said plurality of audio comments has a corresponding name of a user providing said audio comment, and said mobile apparatus user identifies one or more commenting users whose comments said mobile apparatus user wishes to be played back while the said mobile apparatus user is experiencing the audio source.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said mobile apparatus is a smart mobile apparatus comprising said data storage, document processing engine and annotator.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein said smart mobile apparatus is a smart telephone.

11. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein said smart mobile apparatus is coupled to a computing device, and wherein said computing device comprising one or more of said data storage, document processing engine and annotator.

12. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said mobile apparatus is a telephone coupled to at least one computing device comprising said data storage, document processing engine and annotator.

13. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said mobile apparatus is coupled to at least one computing device comprising some or all of said data storage, document processing engine and annotator.

14. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said mobile apparatus comprises one or more of said data storage, document processing engine and annotator.