Displaying in a first document a selectable link to a second document based on a passive query

• US 6,658,623 B1
• Filed: 09/15/1997
• Issued: 12/02/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 09/15/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Fuji Xerox Company Limited (Xerox Holdings Corp.), Xerox Corporation (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Fuji Xerox Company Limited (Xerox Holdings Corp.), Xerox Corporation (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Inventors: Weiser, Mark David, Schilit, William Noah, Golovchinsky, Gene, Price, Morgan N.
• Primary Examiner(s): Hong, Stephen S.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Paula, Cesar B.
• Application Number:
  US08/929,426
• Time in Patent Office: 2,269 Days
• Field of Search: 707/512, 707/501, 707/513, 715/501.1, 715/512, 715/513
• US Class Current: 715/208
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/30 of unstructured textual data document management systems G06F16/93
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/94 Hypermedia Hyperlinking G06F40/134

Abstract

The document reading system passively analyzes a document to generate margin or end notes of references to other documents that relate to annotated passages in the document or to the entire document. The invention is responsive to the annotation of a document to passively generate a query that retrieves documents that have similar content to the annotated passage. The retrieved documents are available to the reader through selectable links placed in the margin near the annotation. Additionally, the invention provides end notes with links to documents that are similar in content to the overall content of the annotated document. The invention assists the reader by passively generating selectable links to related documents to assist the user in relating the new document to previously read material.

Claims

1. A method for displaying in a display of a previously authored first document, at least one link to another document, each other document being related to the first document, the method comprising:

identifying at least one annotated segment of the first document entered by a reader while reading the first document;

identifying at least one second document that is related to the at least one annotated segment of the first document; and

displaying in the first document a selectable link for each of the at least one second document, wherein the selectable link for each of the at least one second document is displayed in the first document in response to a query passively generated by each annotation marking by the reader while reading the first document, wherein said annotation marking is a non-textual marking to annotate a textual segment used as a basis of the query.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the selectable link is displayed as an end note to the first document.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of identifying the at least one second document comprises identifying at least one portion of the at least one second document as related to the first document, and wherein the selectable link references the identified at least one portion.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the identified at least one portion is identified as related to the at least one annotated segment and wherein the selectable link is displayed near the identified at least one reader annotated segment.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the step of identifying is in response to the entry by the reader of the at least one annotated segment of the first document.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the step of identifying the at least one second document is in response to the entry by the reader of the at least one annotated segment of the first document.

7. the method of claim 5, wherein the selectable link is displayed in a margin adjacent to the at least one annotated segment.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of identifying the at least one second document comprises determining the relatedness based upon reader identified terms and terms identified using relevance feedback techniques.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the step of identifying uses weighted-sum queries.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

determining if the selectable link has been selected; and

displaying the identified at least one second document in response to the selection of the selectable link.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of identifying comprises the steps of:

identifying a plurality of second documents as related to the first document;

clustering the identified plurality of second documents; and

selecting at least one of the identified plurality of second documents for each cluster that typifies all of the identified plurality of second documents within each respective cluster, wherein the selectable link references the selected at least one of the identified plurality of second documents.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the relatedness is determined based upon the similarity of the contents of the at least one second document to the first document.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising the step of filtering out an identified at least one second document that is below a predetermined similarity threshold.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein an icon representing the type of the identified at least one second document is displayed.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the title of the identified at least one second document is displayed.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein a summary of the identified at least one second document is displayed.

17. An electronic document system for suggesting in a display of a previously authored first document at least one second document that is related to the first document, the system comprising:

a processor that identifies at least one annotated segment of the first document entered by a reader while reading the first document and that identifies at least one second document as related to the at least one annotated segment of the first document; and

a display that display a selectable link that references the identified at least one second document in a display of the first document, wherein the selectable link is displayed for each of the identified at least one second document in the display of the first document in response to a query passively generated by each annotation marking by the reader while reading the first document, wherein said annotation marking is a non-textual marking to annotate a textual segment used as a basis of the query.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the processor identifies the at least one second document based upon the relatedness of the at least one portion of the at least one second document to the first document, and wherein the selectable link references the identified at least one portion.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the processor identifies at least one annotated segment of the first document and identifies the at least one portion as related to the identified at least one annotated segment, wherein the selectable link is displayed near the identified at least one annotated segment.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein the selectable link is displayed as an end note to the first document.

21. The system of claim 17, further comprising a user input interface, wherein the processor is responsive to the annotation of a segment of the first document by the reader to identify the at least one second document.

22. The system of claim 20, wherein the selectable link is displayed in the margin adjacent to the at least one annotated segment.

23. The system of claim 17, wherein the processor identifies the at least one second document based upon reader identified terms and terms identified based upon relevance feedback techniques.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the processor also identifies the at least one second document based upon weighted-sum queries.

25. The system of claim 17, further comprising a user interface, wherein the display is responsive to the selection of the selectable link by the reader to display the identified at least one second document.

26. The system of claim 17, wherein the processor identifies a plurality of second documents based upon their relatedness to the first document, clusters the identified plurality of second documents and selects at least one of the plurality of identified second documents for each cluster that typifies all of the identified second documents within each respective cluster, wherein the selectable link references the selected at least one of the plurality of second documents.

27. The system of claim 17, wherein the processor determines the relatedness of the at least one second document to the first document based upon the similarity of the contents.

28. The system of claim 27, further comprising a filter for filtering out the identified at least one of the plurality of second documents that are below a predetermined similarity threshold.

29. The system of claim 17, wherein the display also displays an icon representing the type of the identified at least one second document.

30. The system of claim 17, wherein the display also displays the title of the identified at least one second document.

31. The system of claim 17, wherein the display also displays a summary of the identified at least one second document.

32. A method for displaying in a display of a previously authored first document, at least one link to another document, each other document being related to the first document, the method comprising:

selecting at least one annotated segment of the first document entered by a reader while reading the first document;

identifying at least one second document that is related to the at least one annotated segment of the first document; and

displaying in the first document a selectable link for each of the at least one second document, wherein the selectable link for each of the at least one second document is displayed in the first document in response to a query passively generated by each annotation marking by the reader while reading the first document, wherein said annotation marking is a non-textual marking to annotate a textual segment used as a basis of the query.