Systems and methods for determining relationships between stories

• US 8,914,386 B1
• Filed: 09/13/2010
• Issued: 12/16/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/13/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Audible Incorporated (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Audible Incorporated (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Story, Guy A. Jr., Dzik, Steven
• Primary Examiner(s): GOFMAN, ALEX N
• Application Number:
  US12/881,053
• Time in Patent Office: 1,555 Days
• Field of Search: 707/752, 707/912, 707/913
• US Class Current: 707/752
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/31 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided for displaying relationships between stories. In some embodiments, a plurality of referents that are each related to a first story may be caused to be displayed, where a referent is at least one of an event, a character, an object, a subject, a time, a place and a person. A user may be enabled to select one of the plurality of referents in order to view identification information identifying at least one other story, where the other story is also associated with the selected referent. In response to user selection of one of the plurality of referents, identification information identifying the at least one other story that is associated with the selected referent may be caused to be displayed.

Claims

1. A system for displaying relationships between two or more stories, the system comprising:

a data store that stores data associated with a plurality of stories; and

a computing device in communication with the data store and that is configured to;

cause display of;

(1) identification information identifying a first story, wherein the first story is embodied in at least a first type of media, and (2) a plurality of referents that are each related to a point in the first story, wherein each of the plurality of referents comprises at least one of an event, a character, an object, a subject, a time, a place and a person;

enable a user to filter the plurality of referents that are displayed based at least in part on a referent type associated with each of the plurality of referents;

enable a user to select one of the plurality of referents related to a given point in the first story in order to view identification information identifying at least one other story that is also associated with the selected referent; and

based at least in part on a user selection of one of the plurality of referents;

determine a second story that is associated with the selected referent, wherein the second story is different from the first story and is embodied in at least the same first type of media as the first story, wherein the second story is determined based at least in part on stored referent association data that associates the second story with a plurality of referents; and

cause display of (1) identification information identifying the second story that is associated with the selected referent, and (2) a graphical representation comprising a plurality of indicia, wherein each indicium of the plurality of indicia represents a different point that is in the second story and that is related to the selected referent, wherein each indicium of the plurality of indicia is included in the graphical representation in a narrative order in which the point represented by the indicium occurs in the second story.

2. A system for displaying relationships between two or more stories, the system comprising:

a data store that stores data associated with a plurality of stories; and

a computing device in communication with the data store and that is configured to;

cause display of;

(1) identification information identifying a first story, wherein the first story is embodied in at least a first type of media, and (2) a plurality of referents that are each related to a point in the first story, wherein each of the plurality of referents comprises at least one of an event, a character, an object, a subject, a time, a place and a person;

enable a user to select one of the plurality of referents related to a given point in the first story in order to view identification information identifying at least one other story, that is also associated with the selected referent; and

based at least in part on a user selection of one of the plurality of referents;

determine a second story that is associated with the selected referent, wherein the second story is different from the first story and is embodied in at least the same first type of media as the first story, wherein the second story is determined based at least in part on stored referent association data that associates the second story with a plurality of referents; and

cause display of (1) identification information identifying the second story that is associated with the selected referent, and (2) a graphical representation comprising a plurality of indicia, wherein each indicium of the plurality of indicia represents a different point that is in the second story and that is related to the selected referent, wherein each indicium of the plurality of indicia is included in the graphical representation in a narrative order in which the point represented by the indicium occurs in the second story.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the first type of media comprises at least one of a book, an audio book, an electronic book, an image, and a movie.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the at least one other story is associated with the selected referent by the selected referent being referenced in content of the at least one other story.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the content of the at least one other story comprises at least one of text data, audio data, image data and video data.

6. The system of claim 2, wherein the computing device is further operative to cause display of identification information identifying a plurality of other stories, wherein each of the plurality of other stories is associated with the selected referent.

7. The system of claim 2, wherein the computing device is further operative to, in response to user selection of one of the plurality of referents, cause display of a point in at least one other version of the first story that is related to the selected referent.

8. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer executable instructions that, when executed by one or more computing devices, configure the one or more computing devices to perform operations comprising:

causing display of a plurality of referents that are each related to a first story, wherein the first story is embodied in at least a first type of media;

enabling a user to select one of the plurality of referents related to at least one point in the first story in order to view identification information identifying at least one other story that is also associated with the selected referent; and

based at least in part on a user selection of one of the plurality of referents;

determining a second story that is associated with the selected referent, wherein the second story is different from the first story and is embodied in at least the same first type of media as the first story, wherein the second story is determined based at least in part on referent association data that associates the second story with a plurality of referents; and

causing display of a graphical representation comprising a plurality of indicia, wherein each indicium of the plurality of indicia represents a different point that is in the second story and that is associated with the selected referent, wherein each indicium of the plurality of indicia is included in the graphical representation in a narrative order in which the point represented by the indicium occurs in the second story.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein each of the plurality of referents comprises at least one of an event, a character, an object, a subject, a time, a place and a person.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein at least one of the plurality of referents comprises a user-defined referent type.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein each indicium of the plurality of indicia indicates that the selected referent is referenced in content of the second story at a point represented by the indicium.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein points in the second story that are related to the selected referent are determined based at least in part on a point map that relates each of a plurality of points in the first story with a point in the second story.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein content of the second story comprises at least one of text data, audio data, image data and video data.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the first story and the second story are each associated with one or more story versions.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein each story version comprises one of a book, an audio book, an electronic book, and a movie.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the operations further comprise enabling a user to filter the plurality of referents that are displayed based at least in part on a referent type associated with each of the plurality of referents.

17. A computer-implemented method for displaying content, the computer-implemented method comprising:

as implemented by one or more computing devices configured with specific executable instructions,

causing display of a visual representation of a first story, wherein the first story is embodied in at least a first type of media, wherein the visual representation of the first story comprises a plurality of points that are each associated with at least one of a plurality of referents referenced within content of the first story, each of the plurality of referents comprising at least one of an event, a character, an object, a subject, a time, a place and a person;

enabling a user to select one of the plurality of points in the visual representation of the first story that is associated with a given referent;

identifying a plurality of points, in a second story, that are related to the given referent, wherein the second story is different from the first story and is embodied in at least the same first type of media as the first story; and

based at least in part on a user selection of the one of the plurality of points in the visual representation of the first story, causing display of a graphical representation comprising a plurality of indicia, wherein each indicium of the plurality of indicia represents a different point that is in the second story and that is related to the given referent, wherein each indicium of the plurality of indicia is included in the graphical representation in a narrative order in which the point represented by the indicium occurs in the second story.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 17, wherein content of the second story comprises at least one of text data, audio data, image data and video data.

19. The computer-implemented method of claim 17, wherein the first type of media comprises at least one of a book, an audio book, an electronic book, and a movie.

20. The computer-implemented method of claim 17, wherein identifying the plurality of points in the second story comprises identifying a plurality of portions of content of the second story in which the given referent is referenced.

21. The computer-implemented method of claim 17, wherein the visual representation does not include textual content of the first story other than referent identification information.