JP2003505756A - Method and system for using selected text on a web page for searching a database of television programs - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] Providing a selection pointer to a user, selecting text from a web page or other document, receiving the text selected by the user with the selection pointer (10), and extracting a search string from the text selected by the user. A computer that selects (12), searches for database information correlated to the generated search string (14), and communicates the database correlation information to the user (16), thereby selecting a search text and performing a database search. How to use The database may include television program information and may be set to the time of the program selected by the television or video recording device.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to searching text in databases, and more particularly to matching program guide listings and descriptions to text.

[0002]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Over the last few years, the amount of content and information that consumers can obtain through a number of different distribution media, including television and the Internet, has grown exponentially. As the amount of information has grown considerably, some sort of search engine is needed to search the content well. Current search engines link strings of short, often carefully crafted text and compare those strings to a database of text.

Many users have been disappointed with the search for content in databases. The string that a user searching for information enters often does not directly match some of the information in the database available at the search engine. Often, the information retrieved by search engines is ambiguous and not of the type the user was searching for. There are ways in which experienced search professionals can refine search strings to get more relevant information, but these techniques often use flawed and cumbersome notations, Also,
It takes a lot of time.

It is desirable to have a search engine that does not require the user to enter special search text. In addition, it is desirable for users to be able to search television content based on text located on the Internet or in documents. Further, the user may wish to add additional searches to previous search results, or to search from one database to another.

[0005]

[Outline of the Invention]

The present invention is a method of using a computer to select search text and perform a database search. This method is a program that gives the user a selection pointer that the user can see on one page of text. The user moves this pointer over the area of text that he wants to select. The text is provided to the program when the user selects the text by moving the selection pointer.
This program creates a search string from the text selected by the pointer and searches the database for some information corresponding to that search string. When the information corresponding to the search string is found in the database, the information is retrieved, placed in memory and then communicated programmatically to the user.

The text selected by the user may come from a document found in a World Wide Web page or another type of word processor or document viewer. In one embodiment, the selected text may come from the entire page on which the pointer is located. Alternatively, the text may be selected from the entire paragraph or sentence in which the pointer is located. In yet another embodiment, the selected text may consist of text that is a certain number of words before and after where the pointer is located. In yet another embodiment, the text is selected from a first pointer position to a second pointer position.

When text is selected, a search string is generated by subdividing the text selected by the user based on punctuation marks, word types and grammars.
In one embodiment of the present invention, when information is retrieved based on a search string, the retrieved information correlates to which search string the information correlates and how many search strings correlate. Ranked according to.

In a particular embodiment of the invention, the database searched contains television program information, which is a description of the program, the people involved in the program, the date and time the program is broadcast, the program. Including channels that are broadcast. In another embodiment, once the television program information is retrieved from the database, the user can select the program to view and the system will automatically tune the television to the appropriate channel at the appropriate time. In another embodiment, the user can select a program for recording, and the system will automatically tune the video recording device to the appropriate channel to start recording at the beginning of the program and end recording at the end of the program. To do. In yet another embodiment, the program information in the database corresponds to a portion of the program rather than the entire program, allowing the user to select different portions of the program to watch or record.

[0009]

[Explanation of Examples]

The following description sets forth some specific embodiments of the invention, but is intended to be illustrative rather than limiting the concept of the invention.

The present invention is a computer program including a search program. A computer program takes text as input and uses that text to search a database. An overview of the process according to one embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIG.

At block 10, text is selected for use in the search. In one embodiment of the present invention, the text is taken from the text containing the document viewed by the user, either on the World Wide Web or another software application. The text is then parsed into the search string used in the search, as shown in block 12. This parsing step selects a particular subcomponent of the text to search as a whole. Then, as shown in box 14, a search is performed. The search may be limited to a particular database or may be conducted simultaneously in multiple databases. When the search is complete,
The result is sent to the user, as shown in block 16. The results may then be used to make additional searches, or the same search may be done in another database. The results of this search may be used to facilitate viewing and recording of the desired content.

The text used in the search is gathered from the text of the content that the user is looking at. The content that the user is viewing may be obtained via the World Wide Web or software programs circulating locally on the user's system or network. In one embodiment of the invention, a pointer is used on the display to run the computer program. The computer program runs when the user positions the pointer over the text displayed on the screen. The pointer may be a predetermined icon or a user-defined icon. An example of the predetermined icon is an arrow that moves as the mouse moves. The user-defined icon may be created, for example, by using a drawing program. In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the pointer is a floating button.

A search, such as on the Internet, is usually performed with some keywords or simple phrases, and then the database element containing the searched word is returned from the search, whose data elements are usually many. Including the text of. Therefore, less text is input and more text is output. In contrast, in embodiments of the present invention, the input text usually contains many words and the search output usually contains fewer words than the input text. This is especially true when the database searched is a list of television programs and descriptions.

In the illustrative embodiment of the present invention, additional functionality is exercised based on the results of a database search.

[0015] In today's era of information concentration, TV information is transmitted to the WWW (World Wide Web).
It should be associated with information. In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, a specified portion of the textual information on the WWW is compared to television listing information stored either locally or on a central server. When activated,
The computer program displays a list of information including television schedule information associated with the selected text.

In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, the computer program is a “floating button” that resides in the memory of a local computer unit or client unit.
Specified by. The "floating button" can be programmed in ActiveX, Java, any derivative thereof, or any other Internet compatible language. "button"
Can be dragged over the portion of the web text on the screen. The computer program is activated by clicking the button.
The button is used to select a portion of the web text and compare it with a database of television listings and descriptions. The computer program parses the web text and produces a search string. The search string is compared to the program listing and program description. If any part of the program listing and program description contains the generated search string, then the program listing is placed in an element of the search results queue. The elements are then ranked or evaluated for their relevance to the input text. The search result cue elements are then displayed according to their association with the input text. After this, the most relevant program listings and descriptions are displayed first. In addition to displaying what is relevant, additional features are also triggered. In an example illustrating the invention,
A television is included in the local computer unit, or a television is added to the local computer unit. In another embodiment of the invention, the local computer unit is a computer with a tuner card. In yet another embodiment of the invention, the local computer unit is included in a consumer electronics product such as a VCR, a set top box (STB), a satellite receiver, or a television compatible with electronic devices and the like.

In one embodiment of the invention, the database information includes the channel and time of each matched (related) program. In this way, to watch the program,
The user can tune to the specified channel at the specified time. In another example, a television user may select multiple television programs from the displayed results. The multiple television programs may be tuned in the order in which the programs were selected, or the programs may be tuned at a user-specified time. The selected program or programs can be selected via a remote, wired link, or storage and forward recording. The selected program may be tuned immediately or may be scheduled for future automatic recording.

In an additional embodiment of the present invention, parental control may be implemented in which programs are displayed through parental control. The television user may enter the password to bring the selected program into view. This allows, for example, a parent to perform a search for all programs that contain particular content, prevent children from watching the program, or require a password before the program is displayed. Alternatively, parental control may work so that only selected programs are displayed after the search. This allows, for example, a parent to perform a search for all programs that contain particular content, and limit children's viewing of those programs.

In another embodiment of the invention, the computer program does not analyze the input text but passes the input text to a website. This website has its own search engine for searching program listings and descriptions. Alternatively, the computer program may perform no search and analyze the selected text to pass the search string to the website. And this website
Has its own search engine for searching program listings and descriptions. Once the results are available, the results are displayed for the user. On that display, the television user can select a program to be immediately tuned, or a program to be scheduled for later viewing or recording.

While the preferred and preferred embodiments of the invention have been described above, other modifications of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art.
Furthermore, those skilled in the art will immediately appreciate that what is described herein may be replaced by other applications without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, this embodiment of the invention is, in all respects, illustrative and non-limiting, and the scope of the invention is supported by the detailed description of the invention and the drawings rather than by the foregoing description. And their equivalents.

In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, the computer program is a user or a set of user only computer programs. When the pointer is placed over the text, a computer program is executed, the text is selected, processed, and used in a database search. In one embodiment of the present invention, a particular amount of text, such as the entire document on which the pointer is located, a page, a visible portion of a page, a paragraph, or a sentence, is selected and described. Alternatively, it is selected before or after a specific number of words at the position of the pointer. In another embodiment, the user places the pointer at a first location for selecting text, then moves the pointer to a second location for selecting text, and
The part of the text between the two points is processed.

In an embodiment of the invention, the process utilizes clipboard functionality. In a conventional clipboard, a portion of the document is selected, stripping off any special or program-specific formatting information surrounding the text, then the text is buffered. Thus, in one embodiment, the user drags the pointer over the area used to search for text, and that area is copied to the clipboard. Once in the clipboard, the text can be accessed and processed as described below.

The input text is decomposed into lexical units, that is, search strings. In one embodiment, the search string includes the entire sentence and the individual words that make up the sentence. The sentence can be selected because the sentence is a set of words separated by a delimiter such as a period. For example, the sentence "The cat is black and white" is itself a search string, and the search strings "The""cat""is""black""and""whit
e ”. Furthermore, the search string can be made up of compound words of the sentence, based on the meaning of the individual words. For example, the parser recognizes that "black" and "white" are adjectives that modify the target "cat", so the search string "black and
You can make "white cat", "black cat" and "white cat".

The resulting search strings are collected within the search program. The resulting search string is filtered to yield a collection of search strings useful for searching the database. Search strings that are less useful for searching the database are removed. For example, the articles "a" and "an" are removed. However, since the sentence is a search string that can be used by itself, the articles "a" and "an" in the sentence are not removed.

The search strings remaining after removing the useless search strings are useful for searching the database and producing the results of the search. The database may be on the user's machine or some other accessible machine. If a search string consisting of the entire sentence is found in the database, the text containing the sentence is stored in the search result queue. Similarly, if a non-sentence search string is found in the database, the text containing the non-sentence search string is stored in the search result queue.

After all of the input text has been parsed and any database entries containing one or more search strings have been placed in the search results queue, the text in the search results queue is prioritized. In one embodiment of the present invention, database entries are prioritized based on the number and uniqueness of search strings contained within each entry. For example, a database entry containing a search string of the entire sentence may be given higher priority because it is more likely to be relevant. In one embodiment of the invention, the text may be prioritized by ordering within the search result queue. In other embodiments of the invention, text may be prioritized by providing a ranking or number that reflects the priority. The text in the search results queue is displayed in order of priority.

The use of text to search a database can also be viewed as a reverse search.
This is because the search result text can be used as the input text for searching the database. Further, the search result text that is the input text may be longer than the result of performing another search on the search result text.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a flow diagram of a search process according to an embodiment of the present invention.

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued front page    (81) Designated countries EP (AT, BE, CH, CY, DE, DK, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, IE, I T, LU, MC, NL, PT, SE), OA (BF, BJ , CF, CG, CI, CM, GA, GN, GW, ML, MR, NE, SN, TD, TG), AP (GH, GM, K E, LS, MW, MZ, SD, SL, SZ, TZ, UG , ZW), EA (AM, AZ, BY, KG, KZ, MD, RU, TJ, TM), AE, AG, AL, AM, AT, AU, AZ, BA, BB, BG, BR, BY, CA, C H, CN, CR, CU, CZ, DE, DK, DM, DZ , EE, ES, FI, GB, GD, GE, GH, GM, HR, HU, ID, IL, IN, IS, JP, KE, K G, KP, KR, KZ, LC, LK, LR, LS, LT , LU, LV, MA, MD, MG, MK, MN, MW, MX, MZ, NO, NZ, PL, PT, RO, RU, S D, SE, SG, SI, SK, SL, TJ, TM, TR , TT, TZ, UA, UG, US, UZ, VN, YU, ZA, ZW (72) Inventor Harkavie Andrew             United States California             91101 Pasadena North Los Roble             Suave 135 Suite 800 F term (reference) 5B075 KK07 ND20 NK02 PP03 PP13                       PP25 PQ02 PQ32 QP10 UU34                 5C025 CA09 CB08 DA05                 5C052 AA01 AB04 DD04                 5C064 BA07 BD02 BD07

Claims (22)

[Claims] 1. A method of using a computer for selecting a search text and searching a database, comprising providing a selection pointer to a user, receiving text selected by the user with a selection pointer, and selecting with the pointer. Creating a search string from the retrieved text, searching a database for information that correlates to the search string, retrieving information correlating to the search string from the database, and communicating the retrieved information to the user; A method comprising: 2. A method of using a computer to select search text and search a database of claim 1 wherein said text is selected from a World Wide Web page. 3. A method of using a computer to select search text and search a database as claimed in claim 1, wherein said text is selected from a document viewed in a viewer. 4. The method of using a computer for selecting search text and searching a database of claim 1, wherein the text selected by the pointer is that text on the entire page on which the pointer is located. 5. The method of using a computer for selecting search text and searching a database of claim 1, wherein the text selected by the pointer is that text of the entire paragraph in which the pointer is located. 6. The method of using a computer for selecting search text and searching a database of claim 1, wherein the text selected by the pointer is that text of the entire sentence in which the pointer is placed. 7. The method of using a computer to select search text and search a database of claim 1, wherein the text selected by the pointer is a specific number of words before the pointer is located. 8. The method of using a computer for selecting search text and searching a database of claim 1, wherein the text selected by the pointer is a specific number of words after which the pointer is placed. 9. The method of using a computer to select search text and search a database of claim 1, wherein the text selected by the pointer is a specific number of words before and after the pointer is located. 10. The method of using a computer for selecting search text and searching a database of claim 1, wherein the text is selected by placing the pointer at a first position of the selected text. 11. The database comprises television program information.
How to use a computer to search the database and search the database. 12. The search text of claim 1, wherein creating the search string comprises splitting the text into a plurality based on at least one of punctuation, word types, and grammatical rules. A method of using a computer to search a database. 13. The method of using a computer for selecting search text and searching a database of claim 1, further comprising storing the retrieved information in memory. 14. The method of using a computer for selecting search text and searching a database of claim 1, further comprising aligning the retrieved information. 15. The program information corresponding to a program to watch is selected by the user, the selection of the program to watch is received from the user, and the television is tuned to the channel of the selected program at the time of the selected program. A method of using a computer to select a search text and search a database, further comprising: 16. The program information corresponding to a program to be recorded is selected by the user, the selection of the program to be recorded is received from the user, the video recording device is tuned to the channel of the selected program, and the program of the selected program is selected. Record from the start time to the end time of the selected program,
A method of using a computer to select a search text and perform a database search of claim 1 further comprising: 17. A method of searching for a suitable television program using prewritten text, the method comprising providing a selection pointer to a user, receiving the text selected by the user at the selection pointer. Creating a search string from the text selected by the pointer, searching a database of television program information, finding information that correlates to the search string, retrieving television program information from the database that correlates to the search string, the retrieved television A method comprising communicating program information to the user. 18. The advance of claim 17, further comprising causing the user to select program information corresponding to a program to watch, receiving a selection of a program to watch from the user, and tuning a television to the selected program. How to use the written text to find the right TV show. 19. The method according to claim 17, further comprising causing the user to select program information corresponding to a program to be recorded, receiving a selection of a program to be recorded from the user, and tuning a television to the selected program. How to search for suitable TV shows using pre-written text. 20. The prewritten text of claim 18, wherein the television program information retrieved from the database corresponds to a television program segment, and a user can select a television program segment to watch. To find the right TV program. 21. The TV program information retrieved from the database corresponds to a TV program segment, the user is prompted to select a TV program segment to record, and only one TV program segment is recorded. A method for searching for suitable television programs using the prewritten text of claim 19. 22. A selection pointer for selecting text from a document or program,   A parser that decomposes the selected text into a search string,   A search engine that compares the search string to the contents of the database,   A storage device for storing the contents of the searched database,   A display for displaying the contents of the searched database, A search system characterized by having.