Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system – Display driving control circuitry – Controlling the condition of display elements
Reexamination Certificate
1999-04-20
2003-10-21
Sax, Steven (Department: 2174)
Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system
Display driving control circuitry
Controlling the condition of display elements
C345S215000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06636238
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to computer-stored data access and search, and more particularly to accessing and searching for computer-stored presentations that include both audio/video and related textual information, such as a text document, speech transcript, or slide presentation.
2. Description of the Related Art
Frequently, speakers at symposia and other venues are videotaped as they present their lecture, often accompanied by a slide presentation. The slide presentations increasingly are computer-generated by programs such as Lotus Freelance® or Microsoft Power Point®, in which a presenter can couple a laptop computer with a large screen to cause computer-stored slides (referred to in this context as “slides”) to be displayed on the screen in front of the audience in response to manipulation of the laptop computer by the presenter.
In the above example, the recorded presentation can be thought of as consisting of two related, contemporaneous components —the audio video recording, which can be digitized and electronically stored, and the textual information represented by the slides, which are often also stored for future reference. A person wanting to replay the entire presentation would accordingly desire to recall both the audio visual recording, and the accompanying slide presentation.
It is to be appreciated that in the above example, while the slide presentation is contemporaneous with the audio-visual presentation and indeed is usually the subject of the speaker's remarks, the slide presentation is not necessarily tightly coupled to in time with the audio-visual presentation. Stated differently, a conventional video recording, if the camera was focused on the speaker, cannot “know” what slides in the computer-generated slide presentation were presented when by the speaker. As discussed above, however, a person who subsequently accesses a presentation database might indeed want to play back the video presentation along with playing back the slides contemporaneously with the video segments with which the slides were displayed during the original lecture, or may want to search for portions of the presentation including particular text in the audio and/or slides.
Prior systems have not addressed the above-noted consideration. For example, European publication EP0820025A1 discloses a method for automatically presenting a closed caption on a compressed video program, but nowhere does it consider linking audio (from, e.g., an audio/video source) with a related text source. Japanese publications JP8063184A and JP808729A extract text from an audio track using speech recognition principles, but these publications do not appear to consider linking independently generated text with a contemporaneous audio stream.
As still another example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,550,966, owned by the present assignee, is an effective solution for its intended purpose, namely, efficiently constructing and maintaining a library of videos of slide presentations, but it does not consider linking audio derived from a videotape of a person with accompanying text, such as a slide presentation. Instead, the purpose of the '966 patent is to effectively and efficiently manage access to a video database for retrieving entire videos having only a single component —the slide presentations themselves — while reducing data storage requirements by maintaining only a single video frame of each slide. In contrast, the present invention is directed to navigating, searching, and browsing within the components of a presentation that can have multiple sources, and in particular, though not exclusively, audio derived from video, and an accompanying textual document such as a slide presentation.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention is a general purpose computer programmed according to the inventive steps herein to query, retrieve, and browse audio streams as can be derived from audio-video recordings along with text documents, such as slide presentation files, that are associated with the audio streams. The invention can also be embodied as an article of manufacture —a machine component —that is used by a digital processing apparatus and which tangibly embodies a program of instructions that are executable by the digital processing apparatus to undertake the present logic. This invention is realized in a critical machine component that causes a digital processing apparatus to perform the inventive method steps herein. In other aspects, a computer program product is disclosed which is readable by a digital processing apparatus and which tangibly embodies a computer program. The computer program product combines a computer readable medium with program code elements that undertake the logic disclosed below. And, a computer-implemented method is disclosed for executing the logic herein.
Accordingly, in one aspect a query system includes means for accessing at least one text document including at least one slide, and means for accessing at least one audio stream generated contemporaneously with a large screen display of the slide. A user can specify at least one query word or phrase, and in response the system presents in summary form at least some occurrences, if any, of the word or phrase in the text document and the audio stream.
In another aspect, the means for presenting further presents timing information that is common to the text document and the audio stream. Also, at least one temporal relationship can be presented between occurrences of the word or phrase in the audio stream and occurrences of the word or phrase in the text document.
In another aspect, a computer-implemented method is disclosed for associating audio from at least one audio source with at least one text document relating to the audio, with the text document having been presented contemporaneously with the generation of the audio. The method includes linking the audio with the text document, and then associating at least portions of the audio with respective portions of the text document such that associated portions can be presented simultaneously on a computer output device.
Preferably, the method also includes extracting at least one of: text, and keywords, from the audio along with timing information representative of the temporal location of at least some of the text and keywords in the audio. The method also extracts at least one of: text, and keywords, from the text document along with position information representative of the position of at least some of the text and keywords in the text document. As set forth in greater detail below, for at least portions of the text document, information is determined that represents times when the portions were presented on a large screen display. Moreover, for at least portions of the text document, the method determines information representative of times when the portions were removed from a large screen display.
In the presently preferred embodiment, the linking step is accomplished by associating at least a first portion of the text document with at least a first portion of the audio when both first portions include at least one key word in the user query. Or, the linking step can be accomplished by associating at least a first portion of the text document with at least a first portion of the audio when both first portions contain identical time stamps. The time stamps can include at least one of: discrete times, and discrete time periods.
In another aspect, a computer system includes a data store holding at least one audio stream and at least one text source. The audio stream is based on audio that is associated with the text of the text source. A processor receives a query for data in the audio stream or text source and in response enables a user to access at least portions of the audio stream and text source or symbols representative of one or more thereof simultaneously.
In still another aspect, a computer program product includes a computer program storage device readable by a computer, and a program means on the program s
Amir Arnon
Niblack Carlton Wayne
Pass Norman Jerome
Petkovic Dragutin
Ponceleon Dulce Beatriz
International Business Machines - Corporation
Rogitz John L.
Sax Steven
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