Information processing

• US 7,647,345 B2
• Filed: 06/30/2004
• Issued: 01/12/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 07/02/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sony United Kingdom Limited (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony United Kingdom Limited (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Thorpe, Jonathan Richard, Trepess, David William
• Primary Examiner(s): Wong; Don
• Assistant Examiner(s): Thai; Hanh B
• Application Number:
  US10/881,983
• Publication Number:
  US 20050004949A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,022 Days
• Field of Search: 707/1, 707/2, 707 3- 9, 707/100, 707/101, 707/104.1, 358/2.1, 358/447, 382100-135, 382/270
• US Class Current: 707/771
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/338 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/914 Video

Abstract

A method of processing information items, the method comprises the steps of:

• • for an information item comprising primarily text information:
  • analysing text information of the information item to detect a set of constituent information elements relating to that information item;
  • detecting for each of the constituent information elements a respective degree of relative significance based on the frequency and/or nature of occurrence of the constituent information elements with respect to that information item;
  • selecting a subset of at least two most significant constituent information elements; and
  • generating a pseudo-image representative of the information item, the representative pseudo-image comprising the selected subset of constituent information elements arranged in a predetermined image layout such that:
  • the most significant constituent information element of the subset is represented with most prominence and at a first predetermined region within the representative pseudo-image; and
  • the one or more other constituent information element(s) of the subset are represented at other predetermined regions of the representative pseudo-image in dependence on the corresponding degree of relative significance of those element(s).

Claims

1. A method implemented by an information processing device, for processing a plurality of documents including a set of documents including primarily text information, said method comprising:

for each document including primarily text information;

analyzing, by the information processing device, said text information of said document to detect a set of words relating to said document;

detecting, by the information processing device, for each of said set of words a respective degree of relative significance based on at least one of a frequency and a nature of occurrence of the words with respect to said document;

selecting a subset of most significant words from said set of words, said subset containing significantly less words than said set of words;

generating a pseudo-image representative of said document, said representative pseudo-image including said selected subset of words arranged in a predetermined image layout such that;

a most significant word of said subset is represented with most prominence at a first predetermined region within said representative pseudo-image, and

one or more other word(s) of said subset are represented at at least one other predetermined region of said representative pseudo-image in dependence on the corresponding degree of relative significance of those word(s); and

displaying in a sequence over time said set of documents including the most significant word in the first predetermined region and the one or more other word(s) in the at least one other predetermined region.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein said most significant word is represented in a central region of said representative pseudo-image.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein said predetermined regions of the representative pseudo-image have associated image background colours.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein text information is represented in said predetermined regions of said representative pseudo-image using a text font size dependent on a relative significance of said words represented in those regions.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein at least one document of said set of documents is a web page.

6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

generating a pseudo-image representative of said document including primarily image or video information, said sequence of representative pseudo-images including a representation of an image from the document including primarily image or video information.

7. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

providing a user control to allow a user to select one of said plurality of documents by operating said user control when a representative pseudo-image in respect of said document is displayed.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein said time-sequence of representative pseudo-images are displayed with a substantially constant image display size.

9. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

applying a search query to said plurality of documents, said set of documents being derived from said plurality of documents by the results of the search query.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein said detecting includes detecting for each of said words a respective degree of relative significance based on a respective position of said words with respect to said document.

11. The method according to claim 1, wherein said detecting includes detecting for each of said words a respective degree of relative significance based on a prominence of occurrence of said words with respect to said document.

12. A method implemented by an information processing device, for processing a plurality of documents including a set of documents including primarily text information and video information, said method comprising:

for each document including primarily text information and video information;

analyzing, by the information processing device, said text information of said document to detect a set of words relating to said document;

detecting, by the information processing device, for each of said set of words a respective degree of relative significance based on at least one of a frequency and a nature of occurrence of the words with respect to said document;

selecting a subset of at least two most significant words from said set of words, said subset containing significantly less words than said set of words;

generating a pseudo-image representative of said document, said representative pseudo-image including said selected subset of words arranged in a predetermined image layout such that;

a most significant word of said subset is represented with most prominence and at a first predetermined region within said representative pseudo-image, and

one or more other word(s) of said subset are represented at at least one other predetermined region of said representative pseudo-image in dependence on the corresponding degree of relative significance of those word(s); and

deriving a plurality of representative pseudo-images relating to different respective positions within said document including text information and video information.

13. The method according to claim 12, further comprising:

applying a search query to information represented by different respective positions within said document; and

generating a graphical representation of the relevance of information represented by said different respective positions to said search query.

14. A computer readable medium encoded with a computer program configured to cause a processor-based device to execute a method of processing a plurality of documents including a set of documents including primarily text information, the method comprising:

for each document including primarily text information;

analyzing text information of said document to detect a set of words relating to said document;

detecting for each of said set of words a respective degree of relative significance based on at least one of a frequency and a nature of occurrence of the words with respect to said document;

selecting a subset of at least two most significant words from said set of words, said subset containing significantly less words than said set of words;

generating a pseudo-image representative of said document, said representative pseudo-image including said selected subset of words arranged in a predetermined image layout such that;

a most significant word of said subset is represented with most prominence and at a first predetermined region within said representative pseudo-image, and

one or more other word(s) of said subset are represented at at least one other predetermined region of said representative pseudo-image in dependence on the corresponding degree of relative significance of those word(s); and

displaying in a sequence over time said set of documents including the most significant word in the first predetermined region and the one or more other word(s) in the at least one other predetermined region.

15. An information processing system configured to process a plurality of documents including a set of documents including primarily text information, the system comprising:

a text analyzer configured to analyze text information of said document to detect a set of words relating to said document;

a detector configured to detect for each of said set of words a respective degree of relative significance based on at least one of a frequency and a nature of occurrence of said words with respect to said document;

a selector configured to select a subset of at least two most significant words from said set of words, said subset containing significantly less words than said set of words;

a generator configured to generate a pseudo-image representative of said document, said representative pseudo-image including said selected subset of words arranged in a predetermined image layout such that;

the most significant word of said subset is represented with most prominence and at a first predetermined region within the representative pseudo-image, and

one or more other word(s) of said subset are represented at least one other predetermined region of said representative pseudo-image in dependence on corresponding ones of said degrees of relative significance of those word(s); and

a display screen configured to display in a sequence over time said set of documents including the most significant word in the first predetermined region and the one or more other word(s) in the at least one other predetermined region.

16. A portable data processing device comprising a system according to claim 15.

17. Apparatus for at least one of video acquisition and video processing comprising a system according to claim 15.