System and method for dynamically presenting a summary of content associated with a document

• US 7,627,590 B2
• Filed: 10/25/2004
• Issued: 12/01/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 11/18/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Wong, Yin Yin, Boguraev, Branimir, Bellamy, Rachel Katherine Emma
• Primary Examiner(s): Pham; Khanh B
• Application Number:
  US10/972,557
• Publication Number:
  US 20050091591A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,863 Days
• Field of Search: 707/1, 707 5- 6, 707/100, 707/102, 707/104.1, 707200-201, 715/501.1, 715/533, 715/540, 715/530, 715/507, 715/514, 715/522, 715/853, 715512-513, 704/2, 704 8- 9, 345/156, 345/179
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/345 Summarisation for human users
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/109 Font handling; Temporal or kinetic typography
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/917 Text
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/956 Hierarchical
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99935 Query augmenting and refining, e.g. inexact access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99936 Pattern matching access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99942 Manipulating data structure, e.g. compression, compaction, compilation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

A method and system for generating a summary of a document for display to a user on a display are provided. In one implementation, the method includes receiving a first document originally spanning several paragraphs in length, and generating a first summary of the first document, in which the first summary spanning a length less than the original several paragraphs of the first document. The method further includes dynamically displaying the first summary to the user on the display including showing words or short phrases of the first summary at a same location in the display serially one word or short phrase after another. Each word or short phrase is less than a complete sentence.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for generating a summary of a document for display to a user on a display, the method comprising:

receiving a first document originally spanning several paragraphs, each paragraph including one or more sentences of an original length;

generating a first summary for one or more sentences of the first document, including identifying all noun phrases in the first document, grouping related noun phrases together into respective equivalence classes, respectively associating a salience factor to each group of related noun phrases, for each group of related noun phrases having the salience factor that exceeds a pre-determined threshold, labeling each noun phrase within the group of related noun phrases as a tonic stamp, such that the first summary comprises a group of noun phrases having a threshold salience factor indicating the prominence of a given noun phrase in the first document with remaining noun phrases being extracted, including reducing the number of words in each of the one or more sentences to less than the original length of each sentence;

dynamically displaying the first summary to the user on the display including showing words or short phrases of the first summary at a same location in the display of the same words of short phrases in the document, serially one word or short phrase after another, wherein the words or short phrases are less than a sentence being summarized; and

displaying relational context associated with each topic stamp on the display, the relational context being words or phrases surrounding each topic stamp within the first document, each topic stamp displayed within a background of the display and the relational context displayed in a foreground of the display overlaying the topic stamp.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein grouping related noun phrases together into respective equivalence classes includes performing an anaphora resolution algorithm on the first document to reduce a total number of groupings of related noun phrases.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein performing an anaphora resolution algorithm on the first document includes associating anaphoric expressions in the first document with an antecedent noun phrase.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein displaying relational context associated with each topic stamp on the display comprises displaying the relational context for a time period that is based on an amount of text contained within the relational context.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein each topic stamp is displayed in translucent type and the relational context corresponding to each topic stamp is displayed in a heavier type relative to each topic stamp.

6. A computer readable storage medium containing a computer program for generating a summary of a document for display to a user on a display, the computer program comprising programming instructions for:

receiving a first document originally spanning several paragraphs, each paragraph including one or more sentences of an original length;

generating a first summary for one or more sentences of the first document, including identifying all noun phrases in the first document, grouping related noun phrases together into respective equivalence classes, respectively associating a salience factor to each group of related noun phrases, for each group of related noun phrases having the salience factor that exceeds a pre-determined threshold, labeling each noun phrase within the group of related noun phrases as a tonic stamp, such that the first summary comprises a group of noun phrases having a threshold salience factor indicating the prominence of a given noun phrase in the first document with remaining noun phrases being extracted, including reducing the number of words in each of the one or more sentences to less than the original length of each sentence;

dynamically displaying the first summary to the user on the display including showing words or short phrases of the first summary at a same location in the display of the same words of short phrases in the document, serially one word or short phrase after another, wherein the words or short phrases are less than a sentence being summarized; and

displaying relational context associated with each topic stamp on the display, the relational context being words or phrases surrounding each topic stamp within the first document, each topic stamp displayed within a background of the display and the relational context displayed in a foreground of the display overlaying the topic stamp.

7. The computer readable storage medium of claim 6, wherein the programming instructions for grouping related noun phrases together into respective equivalence classes include instructions for performing an anaphora resolution algorithm on the first document to reduce a total number of groupings of related noun phrases.

8. The computer readable storage medium of claim 7, wherein the programming instructions for performing an anaphora resolution algorithm on the first document include instructions for associating anaphoric expressions in the first document with an antecedent noun phrase.

9. The computer readable storage medium of claim 6, wherein the programming instructions for displaying relational context associated with each topic stamp on the display comprise instructions for displaying the relational context for a time period that is based on an amount of text contained within the relational context.

10. The computer readable storage medium of claim 6, wherein each topic stamp is displayed in translucent type and the relational context corresponding to each topic stamp is displayed in a heavier type relative to each topic stamp.