Data processing: database and file management or data structures – Database design – Data structure types
Reexamination Certificate
1999-03-17
2001-02-27
Alam, Hosain T. (Department: 2771)
Data processing: database and file management or data structures
Database design
Data structure types
C707S793000, C707S793000, C707S793000, C345S215000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06195655
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
This invention relates to systems for automatically associating archived multimedia content with current textual content received from sources such as news feeds.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
News wire or news feed services are used by a number of organizations to provide up-to-the-minute news stories. For example, news feeds are used to provide stories for television and radio news broadcasts, for printed news media such as newspapers and magazines, and for online news providers and clipping services. Unfortunately, the overwhelming majority of such news feeds are exclusively text-based, and lack any accompanying graphics, sound bites, or video clips.
In traditional news presentation environments, such as television, radio, and newspapers, this lack of accompanying illustrative content is not a severe problem. In each of these environments, only a limited number of news stories are actually used in any given period. It is not a terribly difficult task to locate audio/video clips and/or photographs to accompany individual stories.
To help in locating appropriate audio/visual items, a production facility might choose to use one of several media management systems. There are several such systems that allow users to categorize images, video, and audio files, and to access one or more files through the use of keyword searches. Some systems also categorize text. All of these systems, however, focus on the categorization and management of media. They organize information, but do not automate the editorial process.
While an existing media management system might conceivably be adequate for some types of news distribution, it is certainly not sufficient for online news providers. An online service provider might wish to distribute a large percentage of the stories received from a news feed. To find audio/visual items manually for every one of these stories, even with the help of a prior art media management system, would be very time consuming. Nevertheless, associating multimedia content with news stories would add significant value to the services of online news providers.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The inventor has conceived a scheme for automatically locating appropriate media objects such as photographs, audio clips, and video sequences to accompany news stories. An electronic database of media objects is maintained. As new items are added to the database, each item is associated with a set of keywords and also with a set of Boolean search criteria.
When a news story is received or distributed, a group of relevant media objects is identified based on the keywords associated with the media objects. Once this group is identified, the search criteria of each media object in the group is evaluated against the news story. Any media object whose search criteria is not satisfied by the story is removed from the group of relevant media objects. A single media object from the remaining, limited group is then selected to be associated with the news story. If more than one object is in the limited group, one is chosen whose keywords appear most frequently in the news story. A historical usage database is maintained to track usage of each media object, so that over-usage of a particular object can be avoided.
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Alam Hosain T.
Jung David
Lee & Hayes PLLC
Microsoft Corporation
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