Methods for computing a navigation path

• US 7,761,789 B2
• Filed: 01/13/2006
• Issued: 07/20/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 01/13/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Inventors: Joshi, Siddharth, Berkner, Kathrin, Schwartz, Edward L., Erol, Berna
• Primary Examiner(s): RIES, LAURIE ANNE
• Application Number:
  US11/332,533
• Publication Number:
  US 20070168852A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,649 Days
• Field of Search: 715/249, 715/201, 715/202, 715/203, 715/204, 715/243
• US Class Current: 715/249
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/4393 Multimedia presentations, e.g. slide shows, multimedia albums
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/489 using time information
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents

Abstract

A method, apparatus and article of manufacture for creating visualizations of documents are described. In one embodiment, the method comprises receiving audible, visual, and audiovisual document elements, computing time attributes associated with the audible, visual, and audiovisual document elements based on display and application constraints, computing information content attributes associated with the audible, visual, and audiovisual document elements based on display and application constraints, selecting a set of one or more of the audible, visual and audiovisual document elements for inclusion into a multimedia representation based on the time and information content attributes, and composing the multimedia representation using the set of one or more of the audible, visual and audiovisual document elements.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving audible, visual, and audiovisual document elements;

computing time attributes associated with the audible, visual, and audiovisual document elements based on display constraints and a time to present each of the audible, visual, and audiovisual document elements, wherein the time for a visual or audiovisual document element is computed based on an estimated time for a user to comprehend the visual or audiovisual document element;

computing information content attributes associated with the audible, visual, and audiovisual document elements based on display constraints;

selecting, with a processor, a set of one or more of the audible, visual and audiovisual document elements for inclusion into a multimedia representation based on the time and information content attributes.

2. The method defined in claim 1 wherein computing the information content attributes is based on one or more of an application and user specific constraints.

3. The method defined in claim 1 wherein one visual document element comprises a visual text element, and wherein computing time attributes comprises computing a time attribute for the visual text element by:

computing a zoom parameter;

determining any necessary pan operations; and

determining a time required to perform the pan and zoom operations.

4. The method defined in claim 3 wherein the zoom parameter is for readability.

5. The method defined in claim 3 wherein the zoom operation causes zooming to transition from an unreadable resolution to a readable resolution.

6. The method defined in claim 1 further comprises composing the multimedia representation using the set of one or more of the audible, visual and audiovisual document elements.

7. The method defined in claim 6 wherein composing the multimedia representation using the set of one or more of the audible, visual and audiovisual document elements comprises outputting a navigation path representation by which the set of one or more of the audible, visual and audiovisual document elements are processed when creating the multimedia representation.

8. The method defined in claim 1 further comprising reordering the set of the audible, visual and audiovisual document elements in reading order.

9. The method defined in claim 1 wherein selecting a set of one or more of the audible, visual and audiovisual document elements based on the time and information content attributes comprises:

selecting either a combination of the visual and audiovisual information or a combination of audible and audiovisual information;

selecting a first set of document elements to maximize information contained in first set subject to a given time constraint; and

selecting a second set of document elements to maximize information contained in the second set subject to an amount of time remaining to complete the multimedia representation after maximizing the selected document elements.

10. The method defined in claim 9 wherein selecting either combination is performed in response to an input from one or more of an application and a user.

11. The method defined in claim 9 wherein selection of either the combination of audible and audiovisual information or visual and audiovisual information is based on an input that is based on one or more application constraints.

12. The method defined in claim 9 wherein maximizing selected document elements is subject to a page thumbnail constraint.

13. The method defined in claim 1 wherein the display constraint is display size of a device for which the multimedia presentation is being generated.

14. The method defined in claim 1 further comprising splitting a time attribute associated with a selected document element to enable the selected document element to fit within a display width.

15. The method defined in claim 14 wherein a point at which the time attribute is split is chosen by one or both of a user and an application.

16. A method comprising:

receiving audible, visual, and audiovisual document elements;

computing time attributes associated with the audible, visual, and audiovisual document elements based on display constraints and a time to present each of the audible, visual, and audiovisual document elements, wherein computing the time attribute for the visual text element further comprises

determining readability of the visual text element for a first view based on display constraints and document information, and

setting the time attribute equal to a product of a speech synthesis constant and a number of characters in the visual text element if the visual text element is determined to be readable;

computing information content attributes associated with the audible, visual, and audiovisual document elements based on display constraints;

selecting, with a processor, a set of one or more of the audible, visual and audiovisual document elements for inclusion into a multimedia representation based on the time and information content attributes.

17. The method defined in claim 16 wherein determining readability is based on one or more of an application and user specific constraints.

18. The method defined in claim 16 further comprising, if not readable in the first view:

determining readability of the visual text element in a zoom view, and

setting the time attribute equal to a product of a speech synthesis constant and a number of characters in the visual text element plus a constant indicative of a time necessary to zoom to a title in the visual text element in the zoom view if readable in the zoom view.

19. The method defined in claim 18 further comprising, if not readable in the first or zoom view:

computing a zoom factor indicative of an amount of zooming that is necessary for readability of text in the visual text element,

determining a time required for panning; and

setting the time attribute based on a time necessary to zoom to text in the visual text element in the zoom view and pan over text element.

20. The method defined in claim 16 wherein the first view comprises a thumbnail view.

21. The method defined in claim 16 wherein the display constraints comprise display width and display height and the document information is based on page width and page height.

22. A method comprising:

receiving audible, visual, and audiovisual document elements;

computing time attributes associated with the audible, visual, and audiovisual document elements based on display constraints and a time to present each of the audible, visual, and audiovisual document elements, wherein one audiovisual document element comprises an audiovisual element having a text portion, and wherein computing time attributes comprises computing a time attribute for the audiovisual element as a maximum of the time required to visually navigate the text portion of the audiovisual element and the time required to play back synthesized text associated with the audiovisual element;

computing information content attributes associated with the audible, visual, and audiovisual document elements based on display constraints;

selecting, with a processor, a set of one or more of the audible, visual and audiovisual document elements for inclusion into a multimedia representation based on the time and information content attributes.

23. A method comprising:

receiving audible, visual, and audiovisual document elements;

computing time attributes associated with the audible, visual, and audiovisual document elements based on display constraints and a time to present each of the audible, visual, and audiovisual document elements, wherein one audiovisual document element comprises an audiovisual element having a figure portion, and wherein computing time attributes comprises computing a time attribute for the audiovisual element as a maximum of the time required to visually comprehend the figure portion of the audiovisual element and the time required to play back synthesized text associated with the audiovisual element;

computing information content attributes associated with the audible, visual, and audiovisual document elements based on display constraints;

selecting, with a processor, a set of one or more of the audible, visual and audiovisual document elements for inclusion into a multimedia representation based on the time and information content attributes.

24. An article of manufacture having one or more recordable media with instructions thereon which, when executed by a system, cause the system to perform a method comprising:

receiving audible, visual, and audiovisual document elements; and

selecting a set of one or more of the audible, visual and audiovisual document elements for inclusion into a multimedia representation based on the time and information content attributes computed based on display and time constraints and at least one of application and user specific inputs, the computed time attributes include at least a time to present each of the audible, visual, and audiovisual document elements, wherein the time for a visual or audiovisual document element is computed based on an estimated time for a user to comprehend the visual or audiovisual document element.

25. The article of manufacture defined in claim 24 wherein selecting the set of one or more of the audible, visual and audiovisual document elements comprises:

computing the time attributes associated with the audible, visual, and audiovisual document elements based on display and at least one application and user specific constraints; and

computing the information content attributes associated with the audible, visual, and audiovisual document elements based on display and application constraints.

26. The article of manufacture defined in claim 24 wherein selecting the set of one or more of the audible, visual and audiovisual document elements comprises:

composing the multimedia representation using the set of one or more of the audible, visual and audiovisual document elements.

27. An apparatus comprising:

an input to receive audible, visual, and audiovisual document elements; and

a selector to select a set of one or more of the audible, visual and audiovisual document elements for inclusion into a multimedia representation based on the time and information content attributes computed based on display and time constraints and at least one of application and user constraints, the computed time attributes include at least a time to present each of the audible, visual, and audiovisual document elements, wherein the time for a visual or audiovisual document element is computed based on an estimated time for a user to comprehend the visual or audiovisual document element.

28. The apparatus defined in claim 27 wherein the multimedia representation generator composes the multimedia representation using the set of one or more of the audible, visual and audiovisual document elements.

29. A method comprising:

receiving audible, visual, and audiovisual document elements;

selecting, with a processor, either a combination of the visual and audiovisual document elements or a combination of the audible and audiovisual document elements for inclusion in a multimedia representation of the document based on the time and information content attributes, the time attributes include at least a time to present each of the audible, visual, and audiovisual document elements, wherein the time for a visual or audiovisual document element is based on an estimated time for a user to comprehend the visual or audiovisual document element;

selecting a first set to maximize information contained in set subject to a given time constraint; and

selecting a second set to maximize information contained in set subject to an amount of time remaining to complete the multimedia representation after maximizing the selected document elements.

30. The method defined in claim 29 wherein selection of either the combination or the audible information is based on an input that is based on one or more application constraints.

31. The method defined in claim 29 wherein maximizing selected document elements is subject to a page thumbnail constraint.

32. The method defined in claim 29 further comprising ordering visual and audiovisual document elements based on ratios of an information content attribute associated with the document element to a time attribute associated with the document element, and wherein selecting either the combination of the visual and audiovisual document elements or the audible document elements for inclusion in the multimedia representation comprises selecting visual and audiovisual document elements to maximize the summation of the information content of the visual and audiovisual document elements while a summation of time attributes associated with selected visual and audiovisual elements is less than a presentation duration of the multimedia presentation.

33. A method comprising:

receiving audible, visual, and audiovisual document elements;

selecting, with a processor, either a combination of the visual and audiovisual document elements or a combination of the audible and audiovisual document elements for inclusion in a multimedia representation of the document based on the time and information content attributes, the time attributes include at least a time to present each of the audible, visual, and audiovisual document elements, wherein selecting either the combination of the visual and audiovisual document elements or the audible document elements for inclusion in a multimedia representation further comprises selecting audible elements for inclusion in the multimedia representation to maximize the summation of the information content of the audible document elements while a summation of time attributes associated with selected audible elements is less than a difference between a presentation duration of the multimedia presentation and the time to present the selected visual elements;

selecting a first set to maximize information contained in set subject to a given time constraint; and

selecting a second set to maximize information contained in set subject to an amount of time remaining to complete the multimedia representation after maximizing the selected document elements; and

ordering visual and audiovisual document elements based on ratios of an information content attribute associated with the document element to a time attribute associated with the document element, and wherein selecting either the combination of the visual and audiovisual document elements or the audible document elements for inclusion in the multimedia representation comprises selecting visual and audiovisual document elements to maximize the summation of the information content of the visual and audiovisual document elements while a summation of time attributes associated with selected visual and audiovisual elements is less than a presentation duration of the multimedia presentation.

34. An article of manufacture having one or more recordable media with instructions thereon which, when executed by a system, cause the system to perform a method comprising:

receiving audible, visual, and audiovisual document elements;

selecting either a combination of the visual and audiovisual document elements or the audible document elements for inclusion in a multimedia representation of the document based on the time and information content attributes, the time attributes include at least a time to present each of the audible, visual, and audiovisual document elements, wherein the time for a visual or audiovisual document element is based on an estimated time for a user to comprehend the visual or audiovisual document element;

selecting a first set of document elements with respect to maximizing information contained in first set subject to a given time constraint; and

selecting a second set of document elements with respect to maximizing information contained in the second set subject to an amount of time remaining to complete the multimedia representation after maximizing the selected document elements.