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Method and system for abstracting electronic documents

Method and system for abstracting electronic documents description/claims

This application is a continuation of pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/487,522, filed Jan. 19, 2000, entitled METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR ABSTRACTING ELECTRONIC DOCUMENTS, which application is incorporated herein by reference.

The present invention relates to electronic documents, and more specifically to a method and system for abstracting an electronic document to at least one level of abstraction.

Electronic documents comprise a vast portion of all documents created and transferred in today's world. For example, electronic mail, news releases, text books, encyclopedias, articles, studies, and novels, to name a few, are widely disseminated as electronic documents. These documents are created as low level texts, those texts that have not been manipulated at all, i.e., they exist in their original full text form with all of their grammatical detail stored in an electronic format.

Today's increasingly complex world often places significant time constraints on individuals, particularly in today's corporate world. Thus, it is often inefficient or impractical for an individual to read an entire electronic document. As speed readers have long recognized, an individual often does not have to read all of the details of a document to discern the desired information. For example, many speed readers are taught to focus on groups of words, not individual words, in order to discern a word cluster's meaning and to progress down a page of text while reading instead of left to right across a page of text. Many people, however, do not know how to utilize these techniques or are not capable of using these techniques.

Several software packages are available that teach speed reading. Also, software packages exist that display electronic documents in varied formats. Some software packages utilize Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP) techniques to present electronic text serially at rapid speeds. The full low level version of the text, though, is presented with RSVP techniques. Also, some software packages exist that display text to the reader using a technique called Tachistoscopic Scroll Presentation. This technique presents the full low level version of the text to the reader in flashes of text in a conventional left to right reading manner in order to train users to read faster.

Systems have also been developed that create summaries or abstracts of an electronic document. One such example is disclosed in Pedersen et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 5,638,543). Pedersen discloses a method of scoring regions of and electronic document according to importance based upon predetermined parameters contained in a computer program. An abstract of the electronic document may be created based upon the scores.

There is still a need, though, for a flexible method of abstracting and electronic document. The level at which one chooses to read an electronic document may depend on the nature of the underlying text. For example, one may choose to read a scientific text at its full text level because of the apparent significance of each word. The same individual, however, may choose to read an electronic mail or a newspaper article at a level of abstraction in order to increase the speed at which the document can be read. Conversely, a person may be interested in particular subject matter contained in an electronic document covering a broad interspersed subject matter. Thus, there is a need for a new method and system for abstracting electronic documents that allows a reader to choose between various levels of abstraction for electronic documents, thereby permitting that reader to read the electronic document according to his or her personal needs, preferences or time constraints.

The present invention is a method of abstracting an electronic document. A user of the electronic document is prompted to select at least one abstracted version of the electronic document. A set of instructions for abstracting the electronic document is selected. The selected abstracted version of the electronic document is created by executing the selected set of instructions. The selected abstracted version of the electronic document is then outputted in a predetermined format.

The above and other advantages and features of the present invention will be better understood from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments of the invention which is provided in connection with the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an exemplary system for abstracting an electronic document.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart of an exemplary method of abstracting an electronic document.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart of an exemplary method of generic abstraction of an electronic document.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart of an exemplary method of particularized abstraction of an electronic document.

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