CN1358389A - Method and system utilizing text selected on web page for searching in database of television programs - Google Patents

Abstract

A method for using a computer to select and search text and perform a database search, the method: providing a user with a selection pointer to select a text from a web page or other materials, receiving the text selected by the user using the selection pointer (10), and selecting a text from the user The text generates search strings (12), searches the database for information related to the generated search strings (14), and delivers relevant information to the user (16). The database can contain television program information and can time a television or VCR to a selected program.

Description

Method and system for searching a television program database using text selected on a web page

Technical field

The present invention relates generally to methods for searching text in a database, and more particularly to a method for coordinating program guide listings and descriptions with text.

technical background

Over the past few years, the amount of content and information available to users has increased exponentially through the distribution of various multimedia, including television and the Internet. Since the amount of information has become so large, in order to efficiently search for content, some type of search engine is required. Current search engines link short, often carefully crafted, text strings and compare these strings to text databases.

Many users have the experience of searching content within databases ineffectively. The strings entered by users to search for information often do not directly correspond to the information in the database available to the search engine. Sometimes, the information retrieved by search engines is vague and not the type that the user is searching for. While experienced searchers have various methods of refining search strings to try and get more relevant information, these techniques are often flawed, often employ inconvenient symbols and are often time consuming.

There is a need for a search engine that does not require the user to enter a special search text. In addition, it is also necessary to enable users to search for content on the TV based on text on the Internet or in materials. Additionally, a user may wish to apply further searches to previous search results or from one database to another.

Contents of invention

The invention is a method for selecting search text and performing database search by using a computer. This method is a procedure that presents the user with a selection pointer visible on the text page. The user moves the pointer within the text area that the user wishes to select. Once the user selects text by moving the selection pointer, the text is provided to the program. The program generates search strings from the text selected with the pointer, and searches the database for any information related to these search strings. Once the information associated with the search string is found in the database, the program retrieves the information, puts it in memory and notifies the user.

The text selected by the user may be from a World Wide Web page or from material being viewed on another type of word processor or document browser. In one embodiment, the selected text is from the entire page where the pointer is placed. Alternatively, the text may be from the entire paragraph or entire sentence where the pointer is located. In another alternative embodiment, the selected text consists of a specified number of words before and after the position of the pointer. In another alternative embodiment, text is selected from a first position of the pointer to a second position of the pointer.

Once the text is selected, a search string is generated by segmenting the user-selected text based on punctuation, part of speech, and grammatical rules. In one embodiment of the invention, once information is retrieved based on these search strings, the retrieved information is ranked according to which character string the information is associated with and how many search strings the information is associated with.

In a particular embodiment of the invention, the database to be searched contains television program information containing: a description of the program, the people involved in the program, the date and time the program was aired, and the time the program was aired. channel. In another embodiment, once television program information is retrieved from the database, the user can select a program to watch and the system automatically tunes the television to the appropriate channel at the appropriate time. In yet another embodiment, the user can select a program to record, and the system automatically tunes the video recorder to the appropriate channel, begins recording when the program begins and ends recording when the program ends. In yet another embodiment, the program information in the database corresponds to portions of the program rather than the entire program so that the user can select different program portions to watch or record.

Description of drawings

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

Detailed ways

In the following description, some specific embodiments of the invention are described for the general purpose of illustrating, but not limiting, the invention.

The present invention is a computer program including a search program. The computer program takes text as input and uses the text to search the computer. The overall process according to an embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIG. 1 .

In box 10, select the text for the search. In one embodiment of the invention, the text is taken from the text containing the material the user is viewing from the World Wide Web or other software application. Next, as shown in block 12, the text is parsed into search strings for use in the search. The analysis step selects a specific subcomponent from the text as an entity to search for. Next, as shown in box 14, a search is performed. The search may be limited to a specific database, or run across multiple databases simultaneously. Once the search is complete as shown in block 16, the results are communicated to the user. The results are then available for further searches, and the same searches can be performed in different databases. Search results can also be used to facilitate viewing and recording of desired content.

The text used in the search is gleaned from the text of the content the user is viewing. The content that the user is viewing may be over the World Wide Web or in a software program running either locally on the user's system or over the web. In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, the computer program is activated using a pointer on the display. The user places the pointing device on the text displayed on the screen, and the computer program is activated. The pointer can be a predefined icon or a user-defined icon. An example of a predefined icon is an arrow that moves with the mouse. User-defined icons can be created, for example, by using a drawing program. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the pointing device is a floating button.

In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, the computer program is a computer program local to the user or group of users. When the pointer is placed over text, the computer program is activated and selects and processes the text for database searching. In one embodiment of the invention, a specified amount of text, such as the entire document, a page, a visible portion of a page, a paragraph, or a sentence where the pointer is located, is selected for analysis. Alternatively, a specified number of words before and after the pointer position is selected. In another alternative implementation full name, the user places the pointer at the first position of the text to be selected and then moves the pointer to the second position of the text to be selected, thereby moving the distance between the two points. The body part is selected for processing.

In one embodiment of the invention, the process utilizes the clipboard functionality. In a traditional clipboard, a portion of material is selected, any proprietary or program-specific formatting information surrounding the text is stripped, and the text is placed in a buffer for later use. Thus, in one embodiment, the user drags the pointer over the segment that is to be the text of the search, thereby copying the segment to the clipboard. Once in the clipboard, the text can be accessed and manipulated as explained below.

Parses the input text into tokens, or search strings. In one embodiment, the search string includes the entire sentence as well as the individual words that make up the sentence. A sentence can be selected because a sentence is a group of words delimited by a delimiter such as a period. For example, the sentence "The cat is black and white" is itself a search string, and is split into the search strings "The", "cat", "is", "black", "and", and "white".

Additionally, each search string may be generated from multiple words of a sentence according to the semantics of each word. For example, the search strings "black and white cat", "black cat", and "white cat" can be generated from the above sentence because the parser recognizes "black" and "white" as adjectives that modify the object "cat".

The generated search strings are collected within the search program. The generated search strings are filtered to generate a set of search strings useful for searching the database. Clears the search database of rarely used search strings. For example, search strings such as the articles "a" and "an" are eliminated. However, the articles "a" and "an" within the sentence are not eliminated, since the sentence itself is a useful search string.

The database is searched using the remaining search strings after removing useless search strings to generate search results. The database may reside on the user's machine or on a machine accessible elsewhere. If a search string consisting of a complete sentence is found in the database, the text containing the sentence is stored in the search result queue. Similarly, if a search string that is not a sentence is found in the database, the non-sentence search string is stored in the search result queue.

After all input text has been analyzed and any database entries containing one or more search strings are placed in the search result queue, the text within the search result queue is prioritized. In one embodiment of the invention, in order to rank the relevance of the matches found in the database, the database entries are prioritized according to the number and nature of the search strings contained within each entry. For example, a database entry containing a search string consisting of a complete sentence may be given higher priority because the database entry is likely to be relevant. In an embodiment of the present invention, the texts may be prioritized by their order in the search result queue. In another embodiment of the present invention, the texts may be prioritized by assigning them a rank value or number reflecting their priority. Displays the individual texts in the search results queue in order of their priority.

Because the text of the search result can serve as the input text for searching the database, searching the database using the text can be regarded as an inverse search. Additionally, the search result text used as the input text may be longer than the results of further searches using the search result text.

Typically, a search, eg on the Internet, is performed using some key words or simple phrases, and then a database element containing the searched term is returned from the search and often includes a long text. This way, a short body is input and a long body is output. On the contrary, in an embodiment of the present invention, the input text usually contains more words, but the search result usually contains fewer words than the input text. This is especially the case when the database being searched is a listing of television programs and descriptions.

In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, other functions may be activated based on the results of the database search.

In the current age of information aggregation, it is desirable to correlate information on the World Wide Web with information on television. In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, specified portions of textual information on the World Wide Web are compared to television listings information stored locally or on a central server. Once activated, the computer program displays a list of information related to the selected text, including television schedule information.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the computer program is identified by a "floating button" residing in the memory of the local computer unit or client unit. The "floating button" can be written in ActiveX, Java, C, any variation thereof, or any other Internet compatible language. This "button" can be dragged to reside on a portion of the web text in the screen. Clicking the button activates the computer program. This button is used to select a portion of the web text for comparison with the database of TV program listings and descriptions. The computer program analyzes the web text and generates a search string. These search strings are compared to program listings and program descriptions. If any, put these program listings into the elements of the search result queue. These elements are then ranked or evaluated for their relevance to the input text. These search result queue elements are then displayed according to their relevance to the input text. Thus, the most relevant program listings and descriptions are displayed first. In addition to displaying related matches, other functions may be triggered. In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, the local computer unit is included in or connected to a television. In an alternative embodiment of the invention, the local computer unit is a computer with a tuner card. In yet another alternative embodiment of the present invention, the local computer unit is included in a household appliance such as a VCR, set top box (STB), satellite receiver or other television compatible appliance.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the database information will contain the channel and time of each matching program. Thus, the user can tune to a specified channel at a specified time to watch the program. In an alternative embodiment, a television user may select a plurality of television programs from the displayed results, and these television programs may be called up in the order in which the programs are selected, or at a time specified by the user. The program or programs to be selected can be selected via a remote control, a wired connection, or a store-and-forward method. Selected programs can be recalled immediately or scheduled for future automatic recording.

In other embodiments of the invention, parental controls may be exercised over which programs are displayed. The television user can cause selected programs to be displayed subject to password entry. This allows, for example, a parent to search for all programs containing a particular content, and then either prevent the child from viewing a program or require a password to be entered before the program can be displayed. Alternatively, the parental controls could be such that only those programs selected after the search are displayed. This allows, for example, a parent to search for all programs containing a particular content and restrict children from viewing these programs.

In an alternative embodiment of the invention, the computer program does not analyze the input text, but instead transmits the input text to a web site with its own search engine for searching program listings and descriptions. Alternatively, the computer program may not run a search but simply analyze the selected text and send the search string to a site with its own search engine for searching program listings and descriptions. Once the result is obtained, display the result to the user. The user can then choose to recall the selected program immediately or schedule it for later viewing or recording.

While there has been described what is considered to be the preferred and exemplary embodiment of the invention, other modifications of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art. In addition, those skilled in the art will readily understand that other applications may be substituted for the applications described herein without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Accordingly, the present embodiments of the invention should be considered in all respects as illustrative rather than restrictive, and the scope of the invention is to be determined by the claims supported by this application, and their equivalents, rather than by The above description is OK.

Claims (22)

1. A method of using a computer to select search text and conduct a database search, comprising: provide the user with a selection pointer; Receive the text selected by the user using the selection pointer; generating a search string from text selected with the pointer; Search databases to find information related to those search strings; Retrieve information related to these search strings from the database; Pass the retrieved information to the user. 2. The method of selecting search text and conducting a database search using a computer of claim 1, wherein the text is selected from a World Wide Web page. 3. The method of selecting search text and conducting a database search using a computer of claim 1, wherein the text is selected from material being viewed in a browser. 4. The method of selecting search text and performing a database search using a computer of claim 1, wherein the text selected by the pointer is the text on the entire page where the pointer is located. 5. The method of using a computer to select search text and perform a database search of claim 1, wherein the text selected by the pointer is the text in the entire paragraph where the pointer is located. 6. The method of using a computer to select search text and perform a database search of claim 1, wherein the text selected by the pointer is the text in the entire sentence where the pointer is located. 7. The method of using a computer to select search text and perform a database search of claim 1, wherein the text selected by the pointer is a prescribed number of words preceding the position of the pointer. 8. The method of using a computer to select search text and perform a database search of claim 1, wherein the text selected by the pointer is a specified number of words following the position of the pointer. 9. The method of using a computer to select a search text and perform a database search according to claim 1, wherein the text selected by the pointer is a specified number of words before and after the position of the pointer. 10. The method of using a computer to select search text and perform a database search of claim 1, wherein by placing the pointer at a first location in the selected text and then placing the pointer at a second location in the selected text Select text. 11. The method of using a computer to select search text and conduct a database search of claim 1, wherein the database contains television program information. 12. The method of using a computer to select search text and perform a database search of claim 1, wherein generating the search string includes dividing the text into segments based on at least one of punctuation, part of speech, and grammatical rules. 13. The method of using a computer to select search text and conduct a database search of claim 1, further comprising: Store the retrieved information in memory. 14. The method of using a computer to select search text and conduct a database search of claim 1, further comprising: Rank the retrieved information. 15. The method of using a computer to select search text and conduct a database search of claim 11, further comprising: Prompting the user to select the program information corresponding to the program to be watched; receiving user selections of programs to watch; and The television is tuned to the channel of the selected program during the broadcast time of the selected program. 16. The method of using a computer to select search text and conduct a database search of claim 11, further comprising: Prompt the user to select the program information corresponding to the program to be recorded; receiving a user selection of a program to be recorded; and tune the video recorder to the channel of the selected programme; Recording is performed from the start time of the selected program to the end time of the selected program. 17. A method of searching for related television programs using prewritten text, comprising the steps of: provide the user with a selection pointer; Receive the text selected by the user using the selection pointer; generating a search string from text selected with the selection pointer; Search television program information databases to find information related to these search strings; Retrieving television program information associated with the search strings from the database; Pass the retrieved information to the user. 18. The method of searching for related television programs using prewritten text of claim 17 further comprising: Prompting the user to select the program information corresponding to the program to be watched; receiving user selections of programs to watch; and Tune the TV to the selected program. 19. The method of searching for related television programs using prewritten text of claim 17 further comprising: Prompt the user to select the program information corresponding to the program to be recorded; receiving a user's selection of a program to be recorded; tune the video recorder to the channel of the selected programme; Recording is performed from the start time of the selected program to the end time of the selected program. 20. The method of searching for related television programs using prewritten text of claim 18, wherein the television program information retrieved from the database corresponds to portions of the television program; and wherein the user selects to view a portion of the television program. 21. The method of searching for related television programs using prewritten text of claim 19, wherein the television program information retrieved from the database corresponds to portions of the television programs; wherein the user is prompted to select to record a portion of the television programs; and wherein only the Part of a TV show. 22. A search system comprising: a selection pointer for selecting text from a source or program; an analysis program for separating the selected text into search strings; a search engine that compares these search strings with content in the database; a storage component for storing retrieved database content; and A display for displaying the retrieved database contents.