Validation, rejection, and modification of automatically generated document annotations

• US 9,880,988 B2
• Filed: 03/28/2014
• Issued: 01/30/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 03/11/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Vanderwende, Lucretia Henrica, Naim, Oscar Gerardo, Wongsuphasawat, Krist
• Primary Examiner(s): Mills, Frank D
• Application Number:
  US14/229,209
• Publication Number:
  US 20140215305A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,404 Days
• Field of Search: 715230
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/169 Annotation, e.g. comment data or footnotes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/279 Recognition of textual entities

Abstract

A mixed-initiative annotation framework is described herein. A document that includes several sentences is presented to a user, and an extractor module analyzes at least one sentence and automatically extracts a subject, predicate, object triple therefrom. The subject, predicate, object triple is displayed in graphical relation with the sentence as a proposed annotation to the sentence. Graphical options are presented to the user that allow the user to accept the proposed annotation, reject the proposed annotation, or modify the proposed annotation.

Claims

1. A method executed by a processor of a computing device, the method comprising:

receiving a request to generate an annotation for a document;

responsive to receiving the request, utilizing natural language processing techniques to generate the annotation for the document based upon content of a portion of the document, wherein the annotation is in the form of a subject, object, predicate tuple;

responsive to generating the annotation for the document, causing a graphical user interface to be presented on a display, the graphical user interface comprises;

at least one field that displays the subject, the predicate, and the object

a first graphical object; and

a second graphical object, wherein when the first graphical object is selected the annotation is validated and assigned to the portion of the document, and when the second graphical object is selected the annotation is rejected and the graphical user interface is updated to comprise at least one text entry field that is configured to receive user alterations to one or more of the subject, the predicate, or the object.

2. The method of claim 1, the computing device being a mobile computing device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the annotation for the document comprises:

receiving a text string;

identifying that the portion of the document comprises the text string; and

generating the annotation based upon text in the portion of the document that comprises the text string.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a selection of the second graphical object in the graphical user interface;

subsequent to receiving the selection of the second graphical object in the graphical user interface, receiving text in the text entry field;

receiving a selection of the first graphical object; and

saving the text in the text entry field as at least a portion of the annotation.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving, the generating, and the causing are performed by a word processing application being executed by the processor.

6. The method of claim 5, the word processing application executing on a server computing device, wherein causing the graphical user interface to be presented on the display comprises causing the graphical user interface to be presented in a web browser on a client computing device that is in communication with the server computing device.

7. The method of claim 1, the computing device being a client computing device, the further comprising:

receiving an indication that the first graphical object has been selected;

responsive to receiving the indication, transmitting the annotation to a network-accessible data repository, the network-accessible data repository accessible to other client computing devices.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the annotation further comprises at least one of an author of the document or an author of the annotation.

9. The method of claim 1,

wherein the at least one text entry field comprises:

a first field that is configured to receive a replacement for the object; and

a second field that is configured to receive a replacement for the predicate.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the at least one text entry field further comprises a third field that is configured to receive a replacement for the predicate.

11. A system comprising:

a processor; and

memory that comprises an application that is executed by the processor, wherein the application, when executed by the processor, causes the processor to perform acts comprising;

causing a document to be displayed on a display;

generating, through utilization of natural language processing, an annotation with respect to a portion of the document displayed on the display, wherein the annotation has the form of a subject, object, predicate tuple, and wherein the annotation is generated based upon a sentence in the portion of the document; and

causing a graphical user interface to be presented on the display responsive to the annotation being generated, the graphical user interface includes;

a first selectable graphical object, wherein responsive to the first graphical object being selected, the annotation is assigned to the portion of the document;

a second selectable graphical object, wherein responsive to the second graphical object being selected, at least one text entry field is presented in the graphical user interface, wherein the at least one text entry field is configured to receive an update to at least one of the subject, the object, or the predicate.

12. The system of claim 11, the application being a web browser.

13. The system of claim 11, the application being a word processing application.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the at least one text entry field comprises a first text entry field and a second text entry field, the first text entry field configured to receive an update to the object, the second text entry field configured to receive an update to the subject.

15. The system of claim 11, the acts further comprising publishing the annotation to a network-accessible data repository responsive to receipt of a selection of the first selectable graphical object.

16. The system of claim 11, the acts further comprising receiving an indication that the portion of the document has been selected, wherein the annotation is generated responsive to receiving the indication.

17. The system of claim 11, the acts further comprising:

receiving a selection of the first graphical object; and

responsive to receiving the selection of the first graphical object, highlighting the portion of the document to indicate that the annotation has been assigned thereto.

18. A computing system comprising:

a processor; and

memory that stores instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform acts comprising;

receiving a selection of a portion of a document, the portion of the document includes a sentence;

responsive to receiving the selection of the portion of the document, and utilizing natural language processing over the portion of the document, generating an annotation for the portion of the document, the annotation in the form of a subject, object, predicate tuple;

responsive to generating the annotation, causing a graphical user interface to be presented on a display, the graphical user interface comprises;

fields that respectively depict the subject, the object, and the predicate;

text entry fields that are configured to receive modifications to the subject, the object, and the predicate, respectively; and

a graphical object, wherein the annotation is published to a network-accessible data store and assigned to the portion of the document responsive to the graphical object being selected.

19. The computer-readable memory of claim 18, the graphical user interface further comprises the portion of the document, wherein the portion of the document is highlighted in the graphical user interface.

20. The computer-readable memory of claim 18, wherein a web browser includes the graphical user interface.