Presenting representative content portions during content navigation

• US 9,087,508 B1
• Filed: 10/18/2012
• Issued: 07/21/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/18/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Audible Incorporated (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Audible Incorporated (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Dzik, Steven Charles
• Primary Examiner(s): Albertalli, Brian
• Application Number:
  US13/655,284
• Time in Patent Office: 1,006 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/345 Summarisation for human users
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/68 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/165 Management of the audio stream, e.g. setting of volume, audio stream path
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 5/04 with audible presentation of the material to be studied sound recording or reproducing G11B
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 5/06 with both visual and audible presentation of the material to be studied
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 21/057 for improving intelligibility

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided for causing aural and/or visual presentation of representative content in response to a request to progress or navigate through audio content at a scan rate exceeding a threshold playback rate. In some embodiments, a current position marker in the audio content may be repeatedly updated based on the scan rate. For each updated position of the current position marker, one or more characteristic words associated with the content near the current position marker may be determined. A continuous presentation of the determined characteristic words may be generated and presented aurally and/or visually in order to provide an indication as to the subject matter of the content at the current position.

Claims

1. A system for navigating content of an audio book, the system comprising:

an electronic data store configured to store;

an audio book; and

an electronic book that is a companion to the audio book; and

a computing device in communication with the electronic data store, the computing device configured to at least;

during playback of the audio book, receive a user selection indicating a request to scan the audio book, wherein the request to scan the audio book is associated with a scan rate;

based at least in part on the request to scan the audio book, update a current progress position in the audio book;

define a content window within the audio book that includes at least a portion of the audio book near the updated current progress position in the audio book, wherein a size of the content window is determined based at least in part on the scan rate;

determine one or more characteristic words associated with the content window, wherein the one or more characteristic words are determined based at least in part by comparing, for each of a plurality of words in a portion of the electronic book corresponding to the portion of the audio book included in the content window, a frequency of the word in the portion of the electronic book corresponding to said portion of the audio book with a frequency of the word in the electronic book as a whole; and

for each of the determined one or more characteristic words associated with the content window;

determine a portion of audio content of the audio book in which the characteristic word is spoken; and

cause aural presentation of the portion of the audio content of the audio book in which the characteristic word is spoken.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the computing device is further configured to at least:

continuously adjust the content window in increments based at least in part on the scan rate; and

continuously present portions of the audio content corresponding to characteristic words associated with the continuously adjusted content window.

3. A system for presenting audio content, the system comprising:

an electronic data store configured to store an item of audio content and text content representing words spoken in the audio content; and

a computing device in communication with the electronic data store, the computing device configured to at least;

receive a request to scan the audio content, wherein the request is associated with a scan rate indicating a rate at which to adjust a current position in the audio content;

based at least in part on a determination that the scan rate exceeds a predetermined threshold rate;

define a content window within the text content, wherein the content window includes text content representing words spoken near the current position in the audio content;

determine one or more characteristic words associated with the content window, wherein the one or more characteristic words are determined based at least in part on a number of times that each of a plurality of words appears in the text content included in the content window;

for each of the determined one or more characteristic words associated with the content window;

determine a portion of the audio content in which the characteristic word is spoken; and

cause aural presentation of the portion of the audio content in which the characteristic word is spoken.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the computing device is further configured to at least slice audio data for at least two non-adjoining words in the audio content.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein the one or more characteristic words are determined based at least in part on a number of times that each of a plurality of words appearing in the content window appear in at least a subset of the audio content that includes audio content outside of the content window.

6. The system of claim 3, wherein the audio content comprises recorded narration audio data.

7. The system of claim 3, wherein the audio content is generated from the corresponding text content.

8. The system of claim 3, wherein the content window is defined to include a number of words determined based at least in part on the scan rate.

9. The system of claim 3, wherein the content window is defined to include text content representing words spoken during a time length of audio content, wherein the time length is based at least in part on the scan rate.

10. The system of claim 3, wherein the request to scan the audio content comprises a request to adjust the current position in the audio content forward or backward at a rate corresponding to the scan rate.

11. A computer-implemented method comprising:

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

receiving a request to scan audio content at a scan rate exceeding a normal playback rate;

in response to the request, updating a current position marker in the audio content based at least in part on the scan rate; and

based at least in part on the updated current position of the current position marker;

defining a content window within the audio content, wherein the content window includes at least a portion of the audio content near the current position, wherein a size of the content window is based at least in part on the scan rate;

determining one or more characteristic words associated with the content window, wherein the one or more characteristic words comprise one or more words spoken in the audio content within the content window, wherein the one or more characteristic words are determined based at least in part on text data representing words spoken in the audio content within the content window and word frequency data associated with each of a plurality of the words represented by the text data;

determining a portion of the audio content in which at least one of the one or more characteristic words is spoken; and

causing aural presentation of the portion of the audio content in which the at least one of the one or more characteristic words is spoken.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, further comprising:

repeatedly updating the current position of the current position marker; and

causing a continuous presentation of characteristic words determined based at least in part on audio content near the repeatedly updated current position.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein the word frequency data includes data regarding frequency of each of a plurality of words in the audio content as a whole.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein the word frequency data includes data regarding how frequently each of a plurality of words is used in common language usage.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein the one or more characteristic words are determined based at least in part by analyzing the audio content, wherein the analysis of the audio content includes analyzing at least one of volume, tone or pitch.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein the one or more characteristic words are determined based at least in part on previous user actions, wherein the previous user actions include at least one of a bookmark or a note associated with one or more words within the content window.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein the request to scan the audio content comprises a fast-forward request or a rewind request.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein the request to scan the audio content is received based at least in part on an interface element representing the current position marker being dragged within a displayed interface.

19. A computer readable, non-transitory storage 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:

receiving a user selection indicating a request to scan audio content, wherein the request is associated with a scan rate indicating a rate at which to adjust a current position in the audio content;

defining a content window within the audio content, wherein the content window includes a portion of the audio content between the current position and an ending position, wherein the ending position is selected based at least in part on the scan rate;

determining one or more characteristic words associated with the content window, wherein the one or more characteristic words are selected from among a plurality of words spoken in the audio content within the content window, wherein the one or more characteristic words are selected based at least in part on text data representing words spoken in the audio content within the content window and word frequency data;

determining a portion of the audio content in which at least one of the one or more characteristic words is spoken; and

causing aural presentation of the portion of the audio content in which the at least one of the one or more characteristic words is spoken.

20. The computer readable, non-transitory storage medium of claim 19, wherein causing the aural presentation includes determining a playback volume for each of the one or more characteristic words based at least in part on the word frequency data.

21. The computer readable, non-transitory storage medium of claim 19, wherein causing the aural presentation includes splicing audio data for at least two non-adjoining words in the audio content.

22. The computer readable, non-transitory storage medium of claim 19, wherein at least two portions of the audio content corresponding to different characteristic words overlap in the aural presentation.

23. The computer readable, non-transitory storage medium of claim 19, wherein the operations further comprise:

continuously adjusting the content window based at least in part on the scan rate; and

causing continuous presentation of portions of the audio content corresponding to characteristic words associated with the continuously adjusted content window.