Method and apparatus for correlating the results of a computer network text search with relevant multimedia files
First Claim
1. A method for locating a text document and automatically illustrating the text document with a multimedia file using a computer network, the method comprising the steps of:
- a. receiving a query term from a user;
b. conducting a search of the computer network for the text document utilizing said query term;
c. retrieving the text document from the computer network;
d. automatically parsing the text document into a plurality of key terms;
e. automatically conducting a multimedia file search on the computer network utilizing said plurality of key terms;
f. locating the multimedia file on the computer network as a result of said multimedia file search;
g. automatically associating the multimedia file and the text document;
h. communicating the text document to said user and displaying the associated multimedia file to said user contemporaneously.
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Abstract
The Invention is a method and apparatus for automatic retrieval, organization, correlation and presentation of text, image, audio, or video data in a sequential manner. A user searches a database available on a computer network using a text search engine to locate a text document. The text document is automatically read and parsed to identify text portions and key phrases. The key phrases are used to automatically search a multimedia file database available on the computer network using a multimedia search engine, such as an image search engine. Multimedia documents containing multimedia files are retrieved. Text in the multimedia documents is compared to the key terms and to the query terms and the multimedia documents are ranked by relevance using a variety of techniques including ranking, indexing, statistical analysis and natural language processing. Each text portion in the text document is stored in association with the most relevant multimedia file for that text portion. The resulting correlated information is displayed to the user in a sequence of text, audio, image or video data.
66 Citations
27 Claims
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1. A method for locating a text document and automatically illustrating the text document with a multimedia file using a computer network, the method comprising the steps of:
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a. receiving a query term from a user; b. conducting a search of the computer network for the text document utilizing said query term; c. retrieving the text document from the computer network; d. automatically parsing the text document into a plurality of key terms; e. automatically conducting a multimedia file search on the computer network utilizing said plurality of key terms; f. locating the multimedia file on the computer network as a result of said multimedia file search; g. automatically associating the multimedia file and the text document; h. communicating the text document to said user and displaying the associated multimedia file to said user contemporaneously. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
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6. A method for locating a text document and automatically illustrating the text document with a multimedia file using a computer network, the method comprising the steps of:
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a. receiving a query term from a user; b. conducting a search of the computer network for the text document utilizing said query term; c. locating the text document on the computer network; d. automatically parsing the text document into a plurality of key terms; e. automatically conducting a multimedia file search on the computer network utilizing a one of said plurality of key terms; f. automatically locating a plurality of the multimedia files as a result of said multimedia file search, each of said plurality of multimedia files being associated with a one of a plurality of multimedia documents, each of said plurality of multimedia documents including a multimedia document text; g. automatically analyzing said multimedia document text contained within each of said plurality of multimedia documents to determine a degree of relevance of each of said plurality of multimedia documents to said query term and to said one of said plurality of key terms; h. automatically ranking each of said plurality of said multimedia documents by said degree of relevance; i. automatically selecting a top-ranked multimedia document from said ranked plurality of said multimedia documents; j. automatically selecting the multimedia file associated with said top-ranked multimedia document to define a selected multimedia file; k. automatically associating said selected multimedia file and the text document; l. communicating the text document and said selected multimedia file to said user contemporaneously. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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25. An apparatus for locating a text document within a computer network and illustrating the text document to a user with a multimedia file, the apparatus comprising:
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a. a microprocessor, said microprocessor being configured to be connected to the computer network, said microprocessor being programmed to conduct a text search using a text search engine of a text database connected to the computer network, said microprocessor being programmed to apply a user-selected query term as a text search parameter in said text search; b. said microprocessor being programmed to receive the text document as a result of said text search, the text document comprising a text, said microprocessor being further programmed to identify automatically a text portion of said text and to extract automatically a proper noun, a noun or a noun phrase from said text portion, said proper noun, said noun or said noun phrase defining a key term; c. said microprocessor being programmed to conduct automatically a multimedia file search of a multimedia file database using a multimedia file search engine, said multimedia file database being available on the computer network, said microprocessor being programmed to use said key term as a multimedia file search parameter for said multimedia file search. d. said microprocessor being programmed to receive automatically a plurality of multimedia documents as a result of said multimedia file search, each of said multimedia documents being associated with a multimedia file, each said multimedia document including an multimedia document text; e. said microprocessor being programmed to rank automatically each said multimedia document based on a relevance of said multimedia document text included in each said multimedia document to said query term or to said key term; f. said microprocessor being programmed to select automatically a one of said plurality of said multimedia documents based on said ranking; g. said microprocessor being programmed to associate automatically said text portion and said multimedia file associated with said selected one of said plurality of multimedia documents; - View Dependent Claims (26, 27)
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Specification