Presentation of written works based on character identities and attributes

• US 8,150,695 B1
• Filed: 06/18/2009
• Issued: 04/03/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/18/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Kalenkovich, Eugene, Killalea, Tom, Hamaker, Janna S.
• Primary Examiner(s): RIDER, JUSTIN W
• Application Number:
  US12/487,136
• Time in Patent Office: 1,020 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 704/270
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/279 Recognition of textual entities
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/295 Named entity recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/00 Speech synthesis; Text to speech systems
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/033 Voice editing, e.g. manipulating the voice of the synthesiser
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/08 Text analysis or generation of parameters for speech synthesis out of text, e.g. grapheme to phoneme translation, prosody generation or stress or intonation determination
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/08 Speech classification or search
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 17/26 Recognition of special voice characteristics, e.g. for use in lie detectors; Recognition of animal voices
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 21/10 Transforming into visible information

Abstract

A method is provided for presenting a written work. A character identity is recognized within a written work. Presentation information for the written work, such as a graphical scheme or an electronic voice, is determined based on the character identity. The presentation information is provided to a user computing device. The user computing device renders the written work or a portion thereof using the presentation information.

Claims

1. A method for presenting a written work, the method comprising:

recognizing within a written work one more character identity attributes;

comparing the one or more character identity attributes with one or more character identities;

selecting one of the one or more character identities based on the comparing, the selected character identity including a voice that corresponds to the one or more character identity attributes;

identifying one or more portions of the written work associated with the character identity;

associating the voice of the selected character identity with the identified portions to define one or more voice-portion associations;

storing the voice-portion associations in a storage device; and

providing the voice-portion associations from the storage device to a user computing device for presentation of the identified portions using the voice of the selected character identity.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying a portion of the written work associated with the character identity comprises identifying a quotation associated with the character identity.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein recognizing a character identity comprises recognizing a narrator for the written work.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein recognizing the one or more character identity attributes comprises recognizing a gender for the character identity.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein recognizing the one or more character identity attributes further comprises recognizing an approximate age for the character identity.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein a voice for the selected character identity is based on a preference of a user of the user computing device.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein a voice for the character identity for the selected character identity is based on one or more of the following:

an ethnicity of the character identity, an era in which the character identity exists, and at least one quotation associated with the character identity.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein a voice for the selected character identity is further based on one or more of the following:

a socioeconomic class of the character identity, a tribe of the character identity, a caste of the character identity, a dialect of the character identity, and an education level of the selected character identity.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing the written work and the selected character identity in the storage device;

receiving a request for the written work from the user computing device via a communication interface;

retrieving the written work and the selected character identity from the storage device; and

providing the written work and the selected character identity to the user computing device via the communication interface.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the one or more character identity attributes is one or more of the following:

an age;

an ethnicity; and

a gender.

11. A method for presenting a written work based on one or more character identity attributes, the method comprising:

recognizing within a written work one or more character identity attributes;

comparing the one or more character identity attributes with one or more character identities;

selecting one of the one or more character identities based on the comparing;

storing the selected character identity in a storage device;

receiving a request for presentation information for the written work from a remote device via a communication interface;

retrieving the selected character identity from the storage device;

determining presentation information for the written work based on the one or more character identity attributes; and

providing the presentation information for the written work to the remote device via the communication interface, wherein the remote device renders the written work using the provided presentation information.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the one or more character identity attributes comprises a gender for the selected character identity.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the presentation information comprises information for presenting the written work in a catalog.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the information for presenting the written work in the catalog comprises a graphical scheme based on the one or more character identity attributes.

15. The method of claim 11, further comprising rendering the written work at the remote device using the provided presentation information.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein the presentation information for the written work comprises a graphical scheme for displaying the written work in an electronic book format.

17. An apparatus for presenting a written work, the apparatus comprising:

a memory area for storing one or more character identities;

a media output component; and

a processor operatively coupled to the memory area and the media output component, the processor programmed to;

retrieve a written work from the memory area, said written work having one or more character identity attributes therein;

identify one or more portions of the written work that include at least one of the one or more character identity attributes;

compare the one or more character identity attributes with at least one of the one or more character identities stored in the memory area;

select one of the one or more character identities based on the comparing;

obtain presentation information for the identified portions based on the selected character identity; and

present the identified portions using the obtained presentation information via the media output component.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, further comprising a communication interface operatively coupled to the processor, wherein the processor is further programmed to:

request a written work from a remote device using the communication interface;

receive the written work from the remote device using the communication interface; and

store the received written work in the memory area.

19. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the media output component comprises an audio adapter, wherein the presentation information for the identified portions comprises a voice for the selected character identity corresponding to the identified portions.

20. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the media output component comprises a video adapter, wherein the presentation information for the identified portions comprises a graphical scheme for the selected character identity corresponding to the identified portions.

21. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein obtaining presentation information for the identified portions comprises obtaining presentation information from a remote computing device.

22. A system for providing a written work for audible presentation at a user computing device, the system comprising:

a storage device for storing a plurality of voices, one or more character identities, and a written work having one or more character identity attributes therein;

a communication interface; and

a processor operatively coupled to the storage device and the communication interface, the processor programmed to;

identify one or more portions of the written work associated with the one or more character identity attributes to create one or more character identity-portion associations;

compare the one or more character identity attributes with one or more of the character identities;

select one of the one or more character identities based on the comparing;

store the character identity-portion associations in the storage device;

provide the selected character identity and the character identity-portion associations from the storage device to a user computing device via the communication interface;

provide a catalog having a plurality of voices from the storage device to the user computing device via the communication interface; and

provide one of the plurality of voices to the user computing device via the communication interface.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the processor is programmed to provide one of the plurality of voices to the user computing device in response to a purchase request from the user computing device, wherein the processor is further programmed to, in response to the purchase request, charge a fee to an account associated with the user computing device.

24. The system of claim 22, wherein the processor is further programmed to:

collect a plurality of character identity-voice associations from a plurality of other user computing devices; and

provide a voice suggestion to the user computing device based on the collected character identity-voice associations.

25. The system of claim 22, wherein the processor is further programmed to:

provide a voice suggestion to the user computing device based on the one or more character identity attributes.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein the processor is programmed to recognize at least one character identity attribute by recognizing a gender and an approximate age of a character identity in the identified one or more portions of the written work.