Finding an end-of-body within content

• US 9,535,884 B1
• Filed: 09/30/2010
• Issued: 01/03/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Chatterjee, Preetha, Killalea, Tom, Hamaker, Janna
• Primary Examiner(s): Ries, Laurie
• Application Number:
  US12/894,417
• Time in Patent Office: 2,287 Days
• Field of Search: 715/234
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/103 Formatting, i.e. changing of presentation of documents automatic justification G06F40/189; automatic line break hyphenation G06F40/191
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/117 Tagging; Marking up details of markup languages G06F40/143; Designating a block; Setting of attributes style sheets, e.g. eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformation [XSLT], G06F40/154
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/137 Hierarchical processing, e.g. outlines

Abstract

Digital content such as eBook may have several sections such as front matter, body matter, back matter, and so forth. To aid in the use of the content, it is worthwhile to find an end-of-body matter or other section breaks. As described herein, these sections may be determined by looking for keywords, specific formatting, manual intervention, last position read, and so forth. Once determined, tags may be generated which designate boundaries of these sections. These tags may then be used during consumption of the content.

Claims

1. A method of formatting an electronic book (eBook), the method comprising:

receiving an original content of the eBook, the original content of the eBook comprising partial formatting;

analyzing, by a processor, text of the eBook to determine data corresponding to the original content of the eBook;

receiving a plurality of last positions, wherein each last position of the plurality of last positions corresponds to the eBook and an individual user of a plurality of users;

determining, by the processor, an end-of-body position within the original content of the eBook based at least in part on the data corresponding to the original content of the eBook and the plurality of last positions;

adding additional formatting, by the processor, to the original content of the eBook, the additional formatting comprising an end-of-body tag associated with the end-of-body position; and

generating a formatted eBook for presentation on an electronic device based at least in part on the additional formatting.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein adding additional formatting to the original content of the eBook comprises automatically inserting, by the processor, the end-of-body tag inline within the original content of the eBook.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

scanning the original content of the eBook for an end-of-body keyword;

identifying the end-of-body keyword;

designating a position within the original content of the eBook proximate to the end-of-body keyword as the end-of-body position; and

generating the end-of-body tag associated with the end-of-body position.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining the end-of-body position based at least in part on the data corresponding to the original content of the eBook and the plurality of last positions comprises:

calculating a computed last position based at least in part on the plurality of last positions;

designating the computed last position as the end-of-body position; and

generating the end-of-body tag associated with the end-of-body position.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the end-of-body position is a first end-of body position, the end-of-body tag is a first end-of-body tag, and further comprising:

scanning the original content of the eBook for changes in formatting;

identifying one or more portions of the eBook containing formatting associated with back matter;

designating a position prior to a start of the one or more portions of the eBook containing formatting associated with back matter as a second end-of-body position; and

generating a second end-of-body tag associated with the second end-of-body position.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the end-of-body position represents a first end-of body position, the end-of-body tag represents a first end-of-body tag, and further comprising:

monitoring a reading speed of a user in the original version of the eBook;

determining a position within the original content of the eBook at which the reading speed of the user changed beyond a threshold amount;

designating the position as a second end-of-body position; and

generating a second end-of-body tag associated with the second end-of-body position.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the end-of-body position represents a first end-of body position, the end-of-body tag represents a first end-of-body tag, and further comprising:

prompting the plurality of users to identify or confirm a position of an end of body matter within the original version of the eBook;

receiving responses from the plurality of users;

in response to determining that a threshold number of users agree on the position of the end of body matter, designating the position of the end of body matter as a second end-of-body position; and

generating a second end-of-body tag associated with the second end-of-body position.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining the end-of-body position based at least in part on the data corresponding to the original content of the eBook and the plurality of last positions comprises:

based at least in part on the plurality of last positions, setting an estimated end-of-body position (EOBP);

determining that the estimated EOBP exceeds a first pre-determined threshold distance from an eBook start point;

determining that the estimated EOBP is within a second pre-determined threshold distance from a previously determined EOBP or that no previous EOBP exists;

determining that one or more internal breaks are within a third pre-determined threshold distance of the estimated EOBP; and

generating the end-of-body tag associated with the estimated EOBP.

9. A non-transitory computer-readable storage media storing instructions that when executed instruct a processor to perform acts comprising:

receiving an original version of content;

receiving a plurality of last positions within the content;

based at least in part upon the plurality of last positions, setting an estimated end-of-section position (EOSP);

based at least in part on the estimated EOSP, determining an end-of-section position within the content; and

in response to determining the end-of-section position, formatting the content with an end-of-section tag associated with the end-of-section position.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 9, storing further instructions that when executed instruct the processor to perform acts comprising determining that the estimated EOSP is within a predetermined threshold distance of a content start point and discarding the estimated EOSP.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 9, wherein the content comprises an eBook.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 11, wherein the section comprises body matter of the eBook.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 9, wherein the formatted content comprises the original version of the content and a separate formatting file comprising the end-of-section tag.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 9, storing further instructions that when executed instruct the processor to perform acts comprising:

scanning the content for end-of-section keywords;

identifying one or more end-of-section keywords;

designating a position within the content proximate to the one or more end-of-section keywords as a different end-of-section position; and

generating a different end-of-section tag associated with the different end-of-section position.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 9, wherein each last position of the plurality of last positions corresponds to an individual user of a plurality of users and storing further instructions that when executed instruct the processor to perform acts comprising:

determining a computed last position based at least in part on the plurality of last positions;

designating the computed last position as a different end-of-section position; and

generating a different end-of-section tag associated with the different end-of-section position.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 9, storing further instructions that when executed instruct the processor to perform acts comprising:

scanning the content for changes in formatting;

identifying a portion containing formatting associated with a subsequent section;

designating a position prior to a start of the portion containing formatting associated with the subsequent section as a different end-of-section position; and

generating a different end-of-section tag associated with the different end-of-section position.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 9, storing further instructions that when executed instruct the processor to perform acts comprising:

monitoring a reading speed of a user in the content;

determining that a change in the reading speed of the user changed beyond a threshold amount, wherein the change in reading speed corresponds to a position within the content;

designating the position as a different end-of-section position; and

generating a different end-of-section tag associated with the different end-of-section position.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 9, storing further instructions that when executed instruct the processor to perform acts comprising:

prompting a plurality of users to indicate an end of a section within the content;

receiving responses from the plurality of users;

in response to determining that a threshold number of users have indicated a position of the end of the section, designating the position as a different end-of-section position; and

generating a different end-of-section tag associated with the different end-of-section position.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 9, storing further instructions that when executed instruct the processor to perform acts comprising:

determining that the estimated EOSP exceeds a first pre-determined threshold distance from a content start point;

determining that the estimated EOSP is within a second pre-determined threshold distance from a previously determined EOSP;

determining that the content does not include internal breaks; and

generating an additional end-of-section tag associated with the estimated EOSP.

20. A system comprising:

a processor;

a memory, coupled to the processor;

a content processing module stored within the memory and, when executed by the processor, causes the processor to;

determine that a reading speed changed beyond a threshold amount at a position within digital content;

determine a transition between sections within the digital content based at least in part on the position within the digital content at which the reading speed changed beyond the threshold amount; and

format the digital content with a section break tag associated with the transition between the sections.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the sections comprise at least two of front matter, body matter, and back matter of an eBook.

22. A non-transitory computer-readable storage media storing instructions that when executed instruct a processor to perform acts comprising:

determining that a reading speed changed beyond a threshold amount at a first position within digital content;

indicating the first position as a preliminary position of a break between sections within the digital content;

displaying at least a portion of the digital content to a plurality of users;

prompting the plurality of users to confirm the preliminary position of the break between sections within the digital content;

accepting user responses from the plurality of users;

determining that a threshold number of users confirmed the preliminary position of the break;

determining a confirmed position of the break between sections based at least in part on the determining that the threshold number of users confirmed the preliminary position of the break between sections; and

providing an indication of the confirmed position of the break between sections to a content processing module configured to format the digital content.

23. The non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 22, wherein the sections comprise at least two of front matter, body matter, and back matter of the digital content.