Techniques for annotating portions of a document relevant to concepts of interest

• US 20030051214A1
• Filed: 08/06/2002
• Published: 03/13/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 12/22/1997
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Inventors: Graham, Jamey, Stork, David G.
• Granted Patent: US 7,395,501 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/512
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/30 of unstructured textual data document management systems G06F16/93
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/34 Browsing; Visualisation therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/40 of multimedia data, e.g. slideshows comprising image and additional audio data retrieval of still image data G06F16/50; retrieval of audio data G06F16/60; retrieval of video data G06F16/70
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching

Abstract

An automatic reading assistance application for documents available in electronic form. An automatic annotator is provided which finds concepts of interest and keywords. The operation of the annotator is personalizable for a particular user. The annotator is also capable of improving its performance overtime by both automatic and manual feedback. The annotator is usable with any electronic document. Another available feature is a thumbnail image of all or part of a multi-page document wherein a currently displayed section of the document is highlighted in the thumbnail image. Movement of the highlighted area in the thumbnail image is then synchronized with scrolling through the document.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for annotating an electronically stored document comprising the steps of:

accepting user input indicating a user-specified concept of interest;

analyzing said electronic document to identify locations of discussion of said user-specified concept of interest; and

displaying said electronic document with visual indications of said identified locations.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said analyzing step comprises exploiting a probabilistic inference method to identify said locations.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein said probabilistic inference method comprises a Bayesian belief network.

4. The method of claim 2 further comprising the step of:

accepting user input defining a structure of said Bayesian belief network.

5. The method of claim 4 further comprising the step of:

modifying said Bayesian belief network in accordance with content of previously visited electronic documents.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein said displaying step comprises the substep of:

highlighting sections of said document surrounding said locations.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein said displaying step comprises the substep of:

displaying a balloon pointing to a user-selected one of said locations, said balloon identifying said user-specified concept to which text in said user-selected one of said locations is relevant.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein said displaying step comprises the substep of:

displaying marginal notation identifying said locations.

9. The method of claim 3 further comprising the steps of:

accepting user input indicating a degree of relation between said locations and said concept of interest; and

modifying said Bayesian belief network responsive to said degree of relation.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of displaying a level of relevance of said document to said concept of interest.

24. The product of claim 1 further comprising code for displaying a level of relevance of said document to said concept of interest.

11. A computer-implemented method for displaying a multipage document comprising the steps of:

displaying an elongated thumbnail image of a multi-page document in a first viewing area of a display;

displaying a section of said multi-page document in a second viewing area of said display in legible form;

emphasizing an area of said thumbnail image corresponding to said section displayed in said second viewing area;

accepting user input controlling sliding said emphasized area through said multi-page document; and

scrolling said displayed section in said second viewing area responsive to said sliding so that said emphasized area continues to correspond to said displayed section.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising the steps of:

accepting user input indicating user-specific concepts of interest;

analyzing said multi-page document to identify locations of discussion of said user-specific concepts of interest;

marking said locations in both said thumbnail image and in said displayed section in said second viewing area.

13. A computer program product for annotating an electronically stored document comprising:

code for accepting user input indicating a user-specified concept of interest;

code for analyzing said electronic document to identify locations of discussion of said user-specified concepts of interest;

code for displaying said electronic document with visual indications of said identified locations; and

a computer-readable storage medium for storing the codes.

14. The product of claim 13 wherein said analyzing code comprises code for exploiting a probabilistic inference method to identify said locations.

15. The product of claim 14 wherein said probabilistic inference method comprises a Bayesian belief network.

16. The product of claim 15 further comprising code for:

accepting user input defining a structure of said Bayesian belief network.

17. The product of claim 16 further comprising code for modifying said Bayesian belief network in accordance with content of said electronic document.

18. The product of claim 17 wherein said modifying code comprises code for updating said Bayesian belief network in accordance with proximity of keywords to said identified locations.

19. The product of claim 13 wherein said displaying code comprises code for highlighting said locations.

20. The product of claim 13 wherein said displaying code comprises code for highlighting sections of said document surrounding said locations.

21. The product of claim 13 wherein said displaying code comprises code for displaying balloons pointing to said locations.

22. The product of claim 13 wherein said displaying code comprises code for displaying marginal notations identifying said locations.

23. The product of claim 15 further comprising:

code for accepting user input indicating a degree of relation between said locations and said concepts of interest; and

code for modifying said Bayesian belief network responsive to said degree of relation.

25. A computer program product for displaying a multipage document comprising:

code for displaying an elongated thumbnail image of a multi-page document in a first viewing area of a display;

code for displaying a section of said multi-page document in a second viewing area of said display in legible form;

code for emphasizing an area of said thumbnail image corresponding to said section displayed in said second viewing area;

code for accepting user input controlling sliding of said emphasized area through said thumbnail image;

code for scrolling said displayed section so that said displayed section continues to correspond to said emphasized area; and

a computer-readable storage medium for storing the codes.

26. The computer program product of claim 25 further comprising:

code for accepting user input indicating user-specific concepts of interest;

code for analyzing said multi-page document to identify locations of discussion of said user-specific concepts of interest; and

code for marking said locations in both said thumbnail image and in said displayed section in said second viewing area.

27. A computer system comprising:

a processor; and

a computer-readable storage medium storing code to be executed by said processor, said code comprising;

code for accepting user input indicating user-specific concepts of interest;

code for analyzing an electronic document to identify locations of discussion of said user-specific concepts of interest; and

code for displaying said electronic document with visual indications of said identified locations.

28. A computer program product for displaying a multipage document comprising:

code for displaying an elongated thumbnail image of a multi-page document in a first viewing area of a display;

code for displaying a section of said multi-page document in a second viewing area of said display in legible form;

code for emphasizing an area of said thumbnail image corresponding to said section displayed in said second viewing area;

code for accepting user input indicating user-specific concepts of interest;

code for analyzing said multi-page document to identify locations of discussion of said user-specific concepts of interest; and

code for marking said locations in both said thumbnail image and in said displayed section in said second viewing area.