System and method of searching for providing clue-based context searching

• US 7,707,146 B2
• Filed: 03/03/2006
• Issued: 04/27/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/03/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Novell Incorporated (Open Text Corporation)
• Inventors: Friedman, Nathaniel Dourif
• Primary Examiner(s): LEROUX, ETIENNE PIERRE
• Application Number:
  US11/366,616
• Publication Number:
  US 20070033183A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,516 Days
• Field of Search: 707/2, 707/3, 707/4, 707/100, 707/102, 709/224, 709/203, 704/257
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3438 monitoring of user actions tracking the activity of the user H04L67/535
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3466 Performance evaluation by tracing or monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/337 Profile generation, learning or modification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/338 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/40 of multimedia data, e.g. slideshows comprising image and additional audio data retrieval of still image data G06F16/50; retrieval of audio data G06F16/60; retrieval of video data G06F16/70
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9038 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/81 Threshold
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/86 Event-based monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/875 Monitoring of systems including the internet
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching

Abstract

The invention is directed to a system and method of reordering conventional search results provided by a remote search engine such as Google. The invention may leverage a chronological timeline of user action information to infer relationships between objects in a search result. The search result reordering process may be iterative and does not require direct interaction by the user.

Claims

1. A method of performing a search, comprising:

receiving a broadcast object from a broadcast media source;

in response to the receipt of the broadcast object, automatically and without user intervention, a microprocessor sequentially executes steps comprising;

i) extracting focal information from the broadcast object;

ii) performing a search on the focal information to obtain one or more related objects which are related to the broadcast object;

iii) extracting related information from the one or more related objects;

iv) performing a search on the related information to obtain one or more additional related objects; and

v) displaying, via a graphical user interface, the one or more related objects and the one or more additional related objects.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the broadcast media source is a digital radio source.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the broadcast media source is a television source.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the search is a web-based search.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the broadcast object is associated with a broadcast program being viewed or listened to by a user.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the steps i) to iv) are performed while the broadcast program is being viewed or listened to by the user.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting the one or more related objects and the one or more additional related objects to a user'"'"'s email address.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting the one or more related objects and the one or more additional related objects to a user'"'"'s messaging device.

17. The method of claim 5, further comprising broadcasting the one or more related objects and the one or more additional related objects while the broadcast program is being viewed or listened to by the user.

18. The method of claim 5, wherein the broadcast object is a recorded broadcast object that is recorded by a digital recording device while the broadcast program is being viewed or listened to by the user.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the broadcast object is a movie object and performing a search on the focal information further comprises performing a search on the focal information associated with the movie object to obtain one or more related people objects or one or more related music objects which are related to the movie object.

20. The method of claim 5, wherein displaying, via the graphical user interface, further comprises displaying the broadcast object, the one or more related objects, and the one or more additional related objects while the broadcast program is being viewed or listened to by the user.

9. A system for performing a search, comprising:

a microprocessor-based related object determining system that in response to receiving a broadcast object from a broadcast media source, automatically and without user intervention, sequentially;

i) extracts focal information from the broadcast object;

ii) performs a search on the focal information to obtain one or more related objects related to the broadcast object;

iii) extracts related information from the one or more related objects;

iv) performs a search on the related information to obtain one or more additional related objects; and

a graphical user interface that in response to receiving a broadcast object from a broadcast media source, automatically and without user intervention;

displays the one or more related objects and the one or more additional related objects.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the broadcast media source is a digital radio source.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the broadcast media source is a television source.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the search is a web-based search.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the broadcast object is associated with a broadcast program being viewed or listened to by a user.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the related object determining system performs operations i) to iv) while the broadcast program is being viewed or listened to by the user.

15. The system of claim 9, further comprising communication means for transmitting the one or more related objects and the one or more additional related objects to a user'"'"'s email address.

16. The system of claim 9, further comprising communication means for transmitting the one or more related objects and the one or more additional related objects to a user'"'"'s messaging device.