Patent Application
20120159315
The present invention relates to meme detection, and more particularly to assisting users to generate the desired meme in a document (e.g., article, e-mail, blog).
A meme is an idea, behavior, style or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture. A meme may also be defined as a unit of cultural ideas, symbols or practices, which can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals or other imitable phenomena. Examples of memes include melodies, catch-phrases, fashion, and the technology of building arches.
Recently, memes have been used in the blogging community to change people's perspectives about a particular product, competitor, politician, person, etc. For example, over a decade ago, bloggers used a negative meme (negative meme referring to implanting in people's mind a negative association) in their blogs that Java® was slow. While numerous objective bench marks have shown that Java® has not been slow in comparison to other competitor software products for over a decade, the belief that Java® is slow was still widely believed until fairly recently.
While authors, such as bloggers, have attempted to write documents (e.g., article, blog) in a manner that produces a desired meme, there are currently no tools to assist the authors in constructing a document using parts of speech, images, numbers, and so forth effectively to accomplish the desired meme or cultural transformation.
In one embodiment of the present invention, a method for assisting users to generate the desired meme in a document comprises evaluating a document for at least one designated primary object within the document, where each of the at least one designated primary objects is evaluated in accordance with a type of meme. The method further comprises identifying terms providing positive and/or negative memes within the document, the terms being at least one of parts of speech, images, numerical text or numbers. Additionally, the method comprises assigning a score for each identified term. Furthermore, the method comprises assigning a score for each of the at least one designated primary objects based on the score for each identified term. In addition, the method comprises providing, by a processor of a computing system, one or more options to modify the document in accordance with the type of meme for each of the at least one designated primary objects.
Other forms of the embodiment of the method described above are in a system and in a computer program product.
In another embodiment of the present invention, a method for assisting users to maintain the desired meme established in a document comprises reviewing a document posted on a network in the context of its environment. The method further comprises identifying a change in the effectiveness of a meme of the document as a result of its environment. In addition, the method comprises informing, by a processor of a computing system, an author of the document that the effectiveness of the meme of the document has been changed in response to identifying the change in the effectiveness of the meme of the document.
The foregoing has outlined rather generally the features and technical advantages of one or more embodiments of the present invention in order that the detailed description of the present invention that follows may be better understood. Additional features and advantages of the present invention will be described hereinafter which may form the subject of the claims of the present invention.
A better understanding of the present invention can be obtained when the following detailed description is considered in conjunction with the following drawings, in which:
The present invention comprises a method, system and computer program product for assisting users to generate the desired meme in a document. In one embodiment of the present invention, a document to be evaluated for positive/negative memes for designated primary objects (e.g., subjects that are the focus of the document) is received. The identifiers (e.g., pronouns, names) used to identify these designated primary objects in the document is received from the author of the document. The type of meme (e.g., positive or negative meme) to be associated with each of these designated primary objects (e.g., individual, company) is also received from the author of the document. The document is scanned to identify parts of speech (e.g., subjects, verbs, adjectives, adverbs), numerical text or numbers and images (collectively referred to herein as the “terms”) that provide positive/negative memes. A score for each of these terms, where such scores may be weighted based on its ability in establishing a negative or positive meme, is assigned. A score may then be assigned to each designated primary object using the scores assigned to the identified terms based on a variety of factors, such as the closeness in location of the identifiers of the designated primary objects to the terms that provide the positive/negative memes. Options may then be provided to modify the document to provide the type of meme desired by the author to be associated with the particular designated primary object. For example, synonyms may be suggested to replace various parts of speech to improve the negativeness or positiveness of the meme. In another example, the paragraph layouts/margins may be adjusted to more effectively establish a positive/negative meme for the designated primary objects. Upon receiving a selection of one or more of these options, the document is modified accordingly to generate the desired meme in the document.
In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced without such specific details. In other instances, well-known circuits have been shown in block diagram form in order not to obscure the present invention in unnecessary detail. For the most part, details considering timing considerations and the like have been omitted inasmuch as such details are not necessary to obtain a complete understanding of the present invention and are within the skills of persons of ordinary skill in the relevant art.
Referring now to the Figures in detail,
In connection with “meme generation,” client 101 is a computing system used by a user to generate a document to accomplish the desired meme or cultural transformation as discussed in more detail below in connection with
Referring now to
Referring again to
Client 101, server 102 may further include a communications adapter 209 coupled to bus 202. Communications adapter 209 of client 101 interconnects bus 202 with an outside network (network 103) thereby enabling client 101 to communicate with server 102. Furthermore, communications adapter 209 of server 102 interconnects bus 202 with an outside network (network 103) thereby enabling server 102 to communicate with client 101.
As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, aspects of the present invention may be embodied as a system, method or computer program product. Accordingly, aspects of the present invention may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment (including firmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.) or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects that may all generally be referred to herein as a “circuit,” ‘module” or “system.” Furthermore, aspects of the present invention may take the form of a computer program product embodied in one or more computer readable medium(s) having computer readable program code embodied thereon.
Any combination of one or more computer readable medium(s) may be utilized. The computer readable medium may be a computer readable signal medium or a computer readable storage medium. A computer readable storage medium may be, for example, but not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. More specific examples (a non-exhaustive list) of the computer readable storage medium would include the following: an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or flash memory), a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. In the context of this document, a computer readable storage medium may be any tangible medium that can contain, or store a program for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.
A computer readable signal medium may include a propagated data signal with computer readable program code embodied therein, for example, in baseband or as part of a carrier wave. Such a propagated signal may take any of a variety of forms, including, but not limited to, electro-magnetic, optical, or any suitable combination thereof. A computer readable signal medium may be any computer readable medium that is not a computer readable storage medium and that can communicate, propagate, or transport a program for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus or device.
Program code embodied on a computer readable medium may be transmitted using any appropriate medium, including but not limited to wireless, wireline, optical fiber cable, RF, etc., or any suitable combination of the foregoing.
Computer program code for carrying out operations for aspects of the present invention may be written in any combination of one or more programming languages, including an object oriented programming language such as Java, Smalltalk, C++ or the like and conventional procedural programming languages, such as the C programming language or similar programming languages. The program code may execute entirely on the user's computer, partly on the user's computer, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the user's computer and partly on a remote computer or entirely on the remote computer or server. In the latter scenario, the remote computer may be connected to the user's computer through any type of network, including a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN), or the connection may be made to an external computer (for example, through the Internet using an Internet Service Provider).
Aspects of the present invention are described below with reference to flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems) and computer program products according to embodiments of the present invention. It will be understood that each block of the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus to product a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for implementing the function/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.
These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer readable medium that can direct a computer, other programmable data processing apparatus, or other devices to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer readable medium produce an article of manufacture including instructions which implement the function/act specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.
The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer, other programmable data processing apparatus, or other devices to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer, other programmable apparatus or other devices to produce a computer implemented process such that the instructions which execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide processes for implementing the function/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.
As stated in the Background section, while authors, such as bloggers, have attempted to write documents (e.g., article, blog) in a manner that produces a desired meme, there are currently no tools to assist the authors in constructing a document using parts of speech, images, numbers, and so forth effectively to accomplish the desired meme or cultural transformation.
The principles of the present invention provide a tool for assisting authors in constructing a document (e.g., news article, e-mail, blog commentary) to accomplish the desired meme or cultural transformation are discussed below in connection with
Referring to
Referring to
In step 302, client 101 receives information regarding the output medium (e.g., page size, media format) of the received document after it has been evaluated and modified to generate the desired meme.
In step 303, client 101 receives an identification of the designated primary objects in the document and the identifiers to recognize them. For example, referring to
In step 304, client 101 receives a type of meme to be associated with each of the designated primary objects. As discussed above, a meme may be a positive or a negative meme. Referring to the example of
In step 305, client 101 scans the received document to identify parts of speech (e.g., subjects, verbs, adjectives, adverbs), numerical text or numbers and images (collectively referred to herein as the “terms”) that provide positive/negative memes as illustrated in
In step 306, client 101 assigns scores to the identified terms that provide positive/negative memes. In one embodiment, positive memes are assigned a positive score, while negative memes are assigned a negative score as illustrated in
In one embodiment, the score is weighted based on how positive or negative of an association is implanted in people's minds. In one embodiment, scores may be based in part on what is referred to herein as a “heat map,” where a heat map identifies the areas of a document, such as a web page, where users are most likely to look via various colors. For example, the color red may indicate where users look the most; whereas, the color gray may indicate areas that did not attract any fixations. Terms that denote a positive or negative meme may be scored higher in areas where users look the most than other areas where users may not be as fixated. In one embodiment, the scores assigned to images may be based on the location of the image in relation to the heat map, the size of the image, the details of the image, the contour mapping of the image, and/or if the image is related to one of the designated primary objects.
In step 307, client 101 assigns scores to the designated primary objects of the document using the assigned scores of the identified terms that provide positive/negative memes based on a variety of factors, including, but not limited to, the closeness in location of the identifiers of the designated primary objects to the terms that provide the positive/negative memes, heat map locations and whether a pronoun or noun is used to identify the designated primary object.
In step 308, client 101 displays the designated primary objects of the document with line markers to the identified terms that provide positive/negative memes as illustrated in
In step 309, client 101 provides options to modify the document to provide the type of meme to be associated with each of the designated primary objects. For example, referring to the example discussed above in connection with
In step 310, client 101 receives one or more selections to the options provided by the user that provided the document to be evaluated in step 301.
In step 311, client 101 modifies the document according to the options selected as illustrated in
In some implementations, method 300 may include other and/or additional steps that, for clarity, are not depicted. Further, in some implementations, method 300 may be executed in a different order than presented herein, wherein the order presented in the discussion of
In addition to having client 101 assist users to generate the desired meme in a document, the principles of the present invention may be embodied as a server component used for detecting any changes to the desired meme in the document produced in step 311 of
Referring to
In step 502, server 102 determines whether the desired meme of the document (document generated in step 311 of
If the desired meme of the document has been changed, then, in step 503, server 102 identifies a change in the effectiveness of the desired meme of the document as a result of the environment in which the document has been placed.
In step 504, server 102 informs the author of the document (document generated in step 311 of
Referring to step 501, if, however, the desired meme of the document has not changed, then, in step 505, server 102 does not inform the author of the document of any needed changes to the document.
In some implementations, method 500 may include other and/or additional steps that, for clarity, are not depicted. Further, in some implementations, method 500 may be executed in a different order than presented herein, wherein the order presented in the discussion of
Although the method, system and computer program product are described in connection with several embodiments, it is not intended to be limited to the specific forms set forth herein, but on the contrary, it is intended to cover such alternatives, modifications and equivalents, as can be reasonably included within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.
