ENTITY-BASED SUMMARIZATION FOR ELECTRONIC BOOKS

• US 20150178266A1
• Filed: 12/20/2013
• Published: 06/25/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/20/2013
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Navrides, Chris, Toksoz, Tuna
• Application Number:
  US14/137,597
• Publication Number:
  US 20150178266A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/345 Summarisation for human users
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/295 Named entity recognition

Abstract

An entity-based summary of an electronic book (e-book) is presented to a user of a client device. The e-book to be summarized is identified and multiple entities, e.g., characters, events and dates, referenced in the identified e-book are also identified. A computer server is adapted to determine a type of the e-book to be summarized and to identify one or more external data sources based on the determined type of the e-book, where an external data source provides information about entities in the identified e-book. Upon receiving a request for an entity-based summary of the e-book from the client device, the computer server is adapted to generate an entity-based summary of the e-book, which describes identified entities referenced in a range of the e-book specified in the request. The generated entity-based summary is presented to the client device responsive to the request.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of presenting an entity-based summary of an electronic book (e-book), the method comprising:

identifying an e-book to be summarized;

identifying a plurality of entities referenced in text of the identified e-book;

receiving a request for an entity-based summary of the e-book, the request identifying a specified range of the e-book between a start point and a break point;

generating an entity-based summary of the e-book, the entity-based summary describing identified entities referenced in the specified range of the e-book; and

presenting the generated entity-based summary responsive to the request.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a type of the e-book to be summarized; and

identifying one or more external data sources based on the determined type of the e-book, an external data source providing information about entities in the identified e-book;

wherein identifying the plurality of entities comprises identifying the plurality of entities responsive to information provided by the external data source.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein determining the type of the e-book comprises:

analyzing metadata associated with the e-book; and

categorizing the e-book into one or more categories responsive to the analysis of the metadata.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the start point identifies a beginning location in the e-book selected by a user of a client device and the break point identifies a farthest location read in the e-book by the user, wherein the break point identifies a location prior to an end of the e-book.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein generating an entity-based summary of the e-book comprises:

generating descriptions of the identified entities using information about the entities from text of the e-book in only the specified range.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein generating descriptions of the identified entities comprises:

identifying text fragments from the e-book in the specified range between the start point and the break point associated with the identified entities;

assigning weights to the identified text fragments describing amounts of information contributed by the text fragments to the descriptions of the identified entities; and

selecting a subset of the identified text fragments for inclusion in the entity-based summary responsive to the assigned weights.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein presenting the entity-based summary comprises:

ranking the identified entities in a list based on importance of the entities to the e-book; and

presenting the ranked list of entities to a client device.

8. A client device for presenting an entity-based summary of an electronic book (e-book) comprising:

a computer processor for executing computer program modules; and

a non-transitory computer readable storage device storing computer program modules executable to perform steps comprising;

identifying an e-book to be summarized;

providing a request for an entity-based summary of the e-book to a server, the request identifying a specified range of the e-book between a start point and a break point, wherein the server is adapted to;

identify a plurality of entities referenced in text of the identified e-book;

generate an entity-based summary of the e-book, the entity-based summary describing identified entities referenced in the specified range of the e-book; and

provide the generated entity-based summary to the client device responsive to the request; and

presenting the entity-based summary on the client device.

9. The client device of claim 8, wherein the server is further adapted to:

determine a type of the e-book to be summarized; and

identify one or more external data sources based on the determined type of the e-book, an external data source providing information about entities in the identified e-book;

wherein identifying the plurality of entities comprises identifying the plurality of entities responsive to information provided by the external data source.

10. The client device of claim 9, wherein determining the type of the e-book comprises:

analyzing metadata associated with the e-book; and

categorizing the e-book into one or more categories responsive to the analysis of the metadata.

11. The client device of claim 8, wherein generating an entity-based summary of the e-book comprises:

generating descriptions of the identified entities using information about the entities from text of the e-book in only the specified range.

12. The client device of claim 11, wherein generating descriptions of the identified entities comprises:

identifying text fragments from the e-book in the specified range between the start point and the break point associated with the identified entities;

assigning weights to the identified text fragments describing amounts of information contributed by the text fragments to the descriptions of the identified entities; and

selecting a subset of the identified text fragments for inclusion in the entity-based summary responsive to the assigned weights.

13. The client device of claim 8, wherein presenting the entity-based summary comprises:

receiving the identified entities in a list ranked based on importance of the entities to the e-book; and

presenting the ranked list of entities to the client device.

14. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing executable computer program instructions for presenting an entity-based summary of an electronic book (e-book), the computer program instructions comprising instructions for:

identifying an e-book to be summarized;

identifying a plurality of entities referenced in text of the identified e-book;

receiving a request for an entity-based summary of the e-book, the request identifying a specified range of the e-book between a start point and a break point;

generating an entity-based summary of the e-book, the entity-based summary describing identified entities referenced in the specified range of the e-book; and

presenting the generated entity-based summary responsive to the request.

15. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, further comprising computer program instructions for:

determining a type of the e-book to be summarized; and

identifying one or more external data sources based on the determined type of the e-book, an external data source providing information about entities in the identified e-book;

wherein identifying the plurality of entities comprises identifying the plurality of entities responsive to information provided by the external data source.

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the computer program instructions for determining the type of the e-book comprise computer program instructions for:

analyzing metadata associated with the e-book; and

categorizing the e-book into one or more categories responsive to the analysis of the metadata.

17. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the start point identifies a beginning location in the e-book selected by a user of a client device and the break point identifies a farthest location read in the e-book by the user, wherein the break point identifies a location prior to an end of the e-book.

18. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the computer program instructions for generating an entity-based summary of the e-book comprise computer program instructions for:

generating descriptions of the identified entities using information about the entities from text of the e-book in only the specified range.

19. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the computer program instructions for generating descriptions of the identified entities comprise computer program instructions for:

identifying text fragments from the e-book in the specified range between the start point and the break point associated with the identified entities;

assigning weights to the identified text fragments describing amounts of information contributed to by the text fragments to the descriptions of the identified entities; and

selecting a subset of the identified text fragments for inclusion in the entity-based summary responsive to the assigned weights.

20. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the computer program instructions for presenting the entity-based summary comprise computer program instructions for:

ranking the identified entities in a list based on importance of the entities to the e-book; and

presenting the ranked list of entities to a client device.