Calculating a maturity level of a text string

• US 9,672,203 B1
• Filed: 12/01/2014
• Issued: 06/06/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 12/01/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Bhar, Bigyan, Sohoney, Saurabh
• Primary Examiner(s): Lerner, Martin
• Application Number:
  US14/557,237
• Time in Patent Office: 918 Days
• Field of Search: 704 1, 704 9, 704 10, 434178
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/205 Parsing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/211 Syntactic parsing, e.g. based on context-free grammar [CFG] or unification grammars
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/253 Grammatical analysis; Style critique
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/30 Semantic analysis

Abstract

Techniques for determining a maturity level of a text string may be provided. For example, the text string may be associated with an electronic book or story, script or closed captioning of a movie or television show, or other text associated with media. The system may analyze the text string to identify actions in the text (e.g., concepts of death, degree of violence, etc.), story complexity (e.g., number of characters, linear/non-linear story flow, etc.), vocabulary (e.g., unique words, complexity of terms, etc.), and other metrics to determine the objective maturity level associated with the text string. The maturity level and/or references to electronic books associated with the particular maturity level may be provided to users and/or used in additional processing and analysis.

Claims

1. One or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media collectively storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more computer systems, configure the one or more computer systems to collectively perform operations comprising:

determining at least a portion of a text string associated with an electronic book;

determining one or more nouns in the text string;

associating each of the one or more nouns with one or more characters so as to create a set of characters for the electronic book;

determining one or more verbs in the text string, each of the one or more verbs representing an action between one of the characters of the set of characters and at least one other of the characters of the set of characters;

generating a character graph that represents relationships between the one or more characters based at least in part upon the one or more verbs and the actions between the one or more characters, the one or more characters represented as nodes in the character graph;

calculating a number of the nodes in the character graph;

comparing the number of the nodes to a character threshold; and

determining a maturity level of the electronic book based in part on the comparison of the character threshold with the number of the nodes in the character graph.

2. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 1, wherein determining the maturity level of the electronic book comprises:

determining a scene in the electronic book;

calculating a number of nouns associated with the scene; and

comparing the number of nouns with the character threshold,

wherein the character threshold is associated with a particular maturity level so that a different maturity level corresponds with a different character threshold, and a greater number of nouns correspond with a greater maturity level, and

wherein the maturity level of the electronic book is determined further based in part on the comparison between the character threshold and the number of nouns associated with the scene.

3. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 1, wherein determining the maturity level of the electronic book comprises:

comparing the one or more verbs with a dictionary of verbs, the dictionary comprising an association between the verbs and one or more maturity levels; and

determining the maturity level of the electronic book based in part on the comparison of the one or more verbs with the maturity level of the one or more verbs in the dictionary of verbs.

4. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 1, wherein the one or more verbs are associated with one or more weights, the one or more weights associated with a complexity of the one or more verbs, and wherein determining the maturity level of the electronic book comprises utilizing the one or more weights associated with the one or more verbs.

5. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 1, wherein determining the maturity level of the electronic book comprises:

determining that the one or more verbs are associated with violence; and

adjusting the maturity level of the electronic book to a greater maturity level based in part on the association of the one or more verbs with violence.

6. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 1, wherein determining the maturity level of the electronic book comprises:

determining a tense of at least one of the one or more verbs for a particular character in the electronic book;

determining that the tense of the at least one of the one or more verbs changes from present tense to past tense for the particular character; and

adjusting the maturity level of the electronic book to a greater maturity level based in part on the tense of the at least one of the one or more verbs.

7. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 1, wherein determining the maturity level of the electronic book comprises:

determining a conjugation of the one or more verbs; and

adjusting the maturity level of the electronic book based at least in part on the conjugation of the one or more verbs, wherein the conjugation of the one or more verbs from present tense to past tense increases the maturity level of the electronic book.

8. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 1, wherein determining the maturity level of the electronic book comprises:

determining a violence rating for the one or more characters based at least in part on a complexity of the one or more verbs; and

adjusting the maturity level of the electronic book based at least in part on the violence rating.

9. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 1, wherein the one or more verbs are represented as edges in the character graph.

10. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

determining at least a portion of a text string associated with an electronic book;

determining one or more nouns in the text string;

associating each of the one or more nouns with one or more characters so as to create a set of characters for the electronic book;

determining one or more verbs in the text string, each of the one or more verbs representing an action between one of the characters of the set of characters and at least one other of the characters of the set of characters;

generating a character graph that represents relationships between the one or more characters based at least in part upon the one or more verbs and the actions between the one or more characters, the one or more characters represented as nodes in the character graph;

calculating a number of the nodes in the character graph;

comparing the number of the nodes to a character threshold; and

determining a maturity level of the electronic book based in part on the comparison of the character threshold with the number of the nodes in the character graph.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, wherein determining the maturity level of the electronic book comprises:

determining a scene in the electronic book;

calculating a number of nouns associated with the scene; and

comparing the number of nouns with the character threshold,

wherein the character threshold is associated with a particular maturity level so that a different maturity level corresponds with a different character threshold, and a greater number of nouns correspond with a greater maturity level, and

wherein the maturity level of the electronic book is determined further based in part on the comparison between the character threshold and the number of nouns associated with the scene.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, wherein determining the maturity level of the electronic book comprises:

comparing the one or more verbs with a dictionary of verbs, the dictionary comprising an association between the verbs and one or more maturity levels; and

determining the maturity level of the electronic book based in part on the comparison of the one or more verbs with the maturity level of the one or more verbs in the dictionary of verbs.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, wherein the one or more verbs are associated with one or more weights, the one or more weights associated with a complexity of the one or more verbs, and wherein determining the maturity level of the electronic book comprises utilizing the one or more weights associated with the one or more verbs.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, wherein determining the maturity level of the electronic book comprises:

determining that the one or more verbs are associated with violence; and

adjusting the maturity level of the electronic book to a greater maturity level based in part on the association of the one or more verbs with violence.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, wherein determining the maturity level of the electronic book comprises:

determining a tense of at least one of the one or more verbs for a particular character in the electronic book;

determining that the tense of the at least one of the one or more verbs changes from present tense to past tense for the particular character; and

adjusting the maturity level of the electronic book to a greater maturity level based in part on the tense of the at least one of the one or more verbs.

16. A system comprising:

a memory configured to store computer-executable instructions; and

a processor in communication with the memory configured to execute the computer-executable instructions to at least;

determine at least a portion of a text string associated with an electronic book;

determine one or more nouns in the text string;

associate each of the one or more nouns with one or more characters so as to create a set of characters for the electronic book;

determine one or more verbs in the text string, each of the one or more verbs representing an action between one of the characters of the set of characters and at least one other of the characters of the set of characters;

generate a character graph that represents relationships between the one or more characters based at least in part upon the one or more verbs and the actions between the one or more characters, the one or more characters represented as nodes in the character graph;

calculate a number of the nodes in the character graph;

compare the number of the nodes to a character threshold; and

determine a maturity level of the electronic book based in part on the comparison of the character threshold with the number of the nodes in the character graph.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein determining the maturity level of the electronic book comprises:

determining a scene in the electronic book;

calculating a number of nouns associated with the scene; and

comparing the number of nouns with the character threshold,

wherein the character threshold is associated with a particular maturity level so that a different maturity level corresponds with a different character threshold, and a greater number of nouns correspond with a greater maturity level, and

wherein the maturity level of the electronic book is determined further based in part on the comparison between the character threshold and the number of nouns associated with the scene.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein determining the maturity level of the electronic book comprises:

comparing the one or more verbs with a dictionary of verbs, the dictionary comprising an association between the verbs and one or more maturity levels; and

determining the maturity level of the electronic book based in part on the comparison of the one or more verbs with the maturity level of the one or more verbs in the dictionary of verbs.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the one or more verbs are associated with one or more weights, the one or more weights associated with a complexity of the one or more verbs, and wherein determining the maturity level of the electronic book comprises utilizing the one or more weights associated with the one or more verbs.

20. The system of claim 16, wherein determining the maturity level of the electronic book comprises:

determining a tense of at least one of the one or more verbs for a particular character in the electronic book;

determining that the tense of the at least one of the one or more verbs changes from present tense to past tense for the particular character; and

adjusting the maturity level of the electronic book to a greater maturity level based in part on the tense of the at least one of the one or more verbs.