Method and apparatus for annotating a document

• US 8,762,853 B2
• Filed: 12/07/2011
• Issued: 06/24/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/09/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Copernicus Investments, LLC
• Original Assignee: Copernicus Investments, LLC
• Inventors: Spielberg, Steven, Gustman, Samuel
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Quoc A
• Application Number:
  US13/314,070
• Publication Number:
  US 20120173959A1
• Time in Patent Office: 930 Days
• Field of Search: 715/255, 715228-230, 715/728, 715/780, 715/271
• US Class Current: 715/728
• 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

To facilitate the use of audio files for annotation purposes, an audio file format, which includes audio data for playback purposes, is augmented with a parallel data channel of line identifiers, or with a map associating time codes for the audio data with line numbers on the original document. The line number-time code information in the audio file is used to navigate within the audio file, and also to associate bookmark links and captured audio annotation files with line numbers of the original text document. An annotation device may provide an output document wherein links to audio and/or text annotation files are embedded at corresponding line numbers. Also, a navigation index may be generated, having links to annotation files and associated document line numbers, as well as bookmark links to selected document line numbers.

Claims

1. A method implemented by a smart device for annotating a document comprising a plurality of paragraph styles comprising the steps of:

said smart device communicating a request to a server via a network for an applet comprising computer readable code for configuring said smart device as an annotation device,

said smart device receiving said applet via said network;

said smart device running said applet to configure said smart device as an annotation device;

said annotation device communicating a request to a server via said a network for a document;

said annotation device receiving said document via said network in response to said request;

said annotation device receiving voice commands, capturing an audio annotation file for each user annotation, and providing an annotation entry in an index file, wherein said annotation entry comprises a first reference to a respective audio annotation file and a second reference to a line identifier in said audio data file;

for each annotation entry in said index file, appending to a corresponding line identifier in said the document one or more links to respective audio annotation files and corresponding annotation text files; and

providing a graphical navigation window comprising a plurality of links to said plurality of audio annotation files, a plurality of links to said annotation text files, and a plurality of links to line identifiers in said document; and

said annotation device beginning playback of audio representing said document;

said audio representing said document comprising for each of said plurality of paragraph styles a voice selected from a plurality of voices according to a voice profile map comprising a user editable mapping of said plurality of voices to said plurality of paragraph styles;

said annotation device receiving a first annotation command via a first user interface of said smart device;

said annotation device pausing said playback after receiving said first annotation command at a first location of said document;

said annotation device receiving a first annotation via a second user interface of said smart device;

said annotation device resuming said playback after receiving said first annotation;

said annotation device transmitting said first annotation and said first location to a server via said network.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said first user interface comprises a touch screen.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein said first user interface comprises an audio input device.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein said second user interface comprises an audio input device.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein said second user interface comprises said first user interface.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein said network comprises an internet.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein said smart device comprises a touch screen.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein said smart device comprises a cellular telephone.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein said document received via said network comprises said audio representing said document.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein said document received via said network comprises a second annotation at a second location of said document.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein said document received via said network comprises text.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising the step of said annotation device generating said audio representing said document from said text.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein said step of resuming said playback after receiving said first annotation comprises receiving an end annotation command prior to resuming said playback.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein said end annotation command is received by said annotation device via said first user interface.

15. The method of claim 13 wherein said end annotation command is received by said annotation device via said second user interface.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein said step of resuming said playback after receiving said first annotation comprises automatically resuming said playback after a passage of a period of time.

17. The method of claim 10 further comprising said annotation device playing back audio representing said second annotation.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein said second annotation received via said network comprises said audio representing said second annotation.

19. The method of claim 4 wherein said step of transmitting said first annotation and said first location via said network comprises converting said first annotation to a first text annotation prior to transmitting said first annotation via said network.

20. The method of claim 1 further comprising the steps of:

receiving a second annotation command via a first user interface of said smart device after said step of resuming said playback after receiving said first annotation.