Automatic hyperlinking on multimedia by compiling link specifications

• US 5,794,257 A
• Filed: 07/14/1995
• Issued: 08/11/1998
• Est. Priority Date: 07/14/1995
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Siemens Corp. (Siemens AG)
• Original Assignee: Siemens Corporate Research Incorporated (Siemens AG)
• Inventors: Hampel, Kenneth, Liu, Peiya, Hsu, Arding
• Primary Examiner(s): Burwell, Joseph R.
• Application Number:
  US08/503,074
• Time in Patent Office: 1,124 Days
• Field of Search: 395/762, 395/774, 395/356, 395/357, 395/613-615, 707/501, 707/513, 707/102-104, 345/356, 345/357
• US Class Current: 715/205
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/94 Hypermedia Hyperlinking G06F40/134

Abstract

A link specification and an electronic manual is provided to an auto linker which in conjunction with a run-time media engine provides hyperlinked manuals. The auto linker comprises a link generator for generating links and a link verifier for checking and modifying the links that are generated. The run-time media engine comprises an event handler and a script interpreter and handles the user interaction. Through the interaction of the hyperlinks from the auto linker with the run-time media engine the hyperlinked manuals are produced.

Claims

1. A system for automatic hyperlinking on multimedia by compiling link specifications comprising:

an extensible Anchorable Information Units (AIU) representation for describing multimedia content;

a link specification based on said extensible AIU representation;

an auto linker for receiving said link specification and a multimedia manual and for providing hyperlinks; and

,

a run-time media engine connected to said hyperlinks;

wherein said auto linker comprises;

a link generator for providing said hyperlinks;

a link verifier for checking and modifying said hyperlinks; and

,

a hyperlink buffer for correlating said link generator with said link verifier wherein;

said link generator incrementally and automatically generates said hyperlinks among textual and non-textual media based on said extensible AIU representation.

2. A system for automatic hyperlinking on multimedia by compiling link specifications as claimed in claim 1 wherein;

said link specification, described by specification language and based on said extensible AIU representation compiled by said link generator, uniformly describes needed hyperlinks on different content-type media for required information access and said link generator systematically generates said hyperlinks.

3. A system for automatic hyperlinking on multimedia by compiling link specifications as claimed in claim 1 wherein;

said link specification specifies extensible anchorable information units on non-textual media by using <

STRING . . . >

, a mechanism for describing contents of new media types, <

TAG . . . >

, a mechanism for describing structures of said contents, and <

CONTEXT . . . >

a mechanism for describing relationships of said structures.

4. A method for automatic hyperlinking on multimedia by compiling link specifications comprising the steps of:

receiving a link specification based on an Anchorable Information Units (AIU) representation;

receiving a multimedia manual;

generating hyperlinks;

verifying said links;

utilizing a run-time media engine to include user interaction; and

,

inserting said hyperlinks into said manual to provide a hyperlinked manual wherein generating hyperlinks comprises the step of;

automatically generating said hyperlinks among textual and non-textual media.

5. A method for automatic hyperlinking on multimedia by compiling link specifications as claimed in claim 4 wherein generating hyperlinks further comprises the steps of:

uniformly describing needed hyperlinks;

compiling specification language obtained from said link specification; and

systematically generating said hyperlinks.

6. A method for automatic hyperlinking on multimedia by compiling link specifications as claimed in claim 5 wherein generating links further comprises the step of:

specifying extensible anchorable information units on non-textual media automatically by using <

STRING . . . >

, a mechanism for describing contents of new media types, <

TAG . . . >

, a mechanism for describing structures of said contents, and <

CONTEXT . . . >

a mechanism for describing relationships of said structures and without recoding link generator.

7. A method for automatic hyperlinking on multimedia by compiling link specifications as claimed in claim 4 wherein generating links comprises the steps of:

initializing generator variables;

deciding whether there is a next link;

parsing next link statement for getting source patterns, destination patterns, source contexts and destination contests;

searching said manual for locating places which satisfy said source patterns under said source context;

searching said manual for locating places which satisfy instantialized destination pattern under context of initialized destination pattern by binding variables found in sources; and

,

collecting all sources and corresponding destinations for describing hyperlinks.

8. A method for automatic hyperlinking on multimedia by compiling link specifications as claimed in claim 4 wherein verifying said links comprises the steps of:

examining said links;

performing a results check;

dropping said links if required;

revising said links if required; and

, forwarding said links for insertion.

9. A method for automatic hyperlinking on multimedia by compiling link specifications as claimed in claim 4 wherein verifying said links comprises the steps of:

inputting said links from a manual pool;

marking the verification choices by link type, link name or link statements;

collecting all link instances which satisfy verification selection;

deciding if there are any more links;

taking one link;

checking if said link is correct, wherein if said link is not correct, mark said link for exclusion;

deciding whether to include additional links;

collecting new links for inclusion; and

, inserting said new links into said manual.

10. A system for automatic hyperlinking on multimedia by compiling link specifications comprising:

an extensible Anchorable Information Units (AIU) representation;

a link specification based on said extensible AIU representation;

an auto linker for receiving said link specification and a multimedia manual and for providing hyperlinks; and

,

a run time media engine means connected to said hyperlinks;

wherein said run-time media engine means comprises;

event handler means; and

,

script interpreter means.