Patent Application
20080281579
People often need to learn one or more new languages or better develop their skills for a language previously learned. Many books and software programs have been created to facilitate the learning of a new language. For example, a simple language learning software application may take input in one language and provide a translation of the input in a different language. In this case, a language learner is required to know which word he wants to translate and enter the word using a keypad. Thereafter, the user must remember the translated word and put the word into context using other words known to the user.
Some language learning software applications present the most common words and/or phrases to a language learner. For example, a software application may present most commonly used words in the new language and in a language known to the user, e.g., a ordinary conversation in a usual environment. Accordingly, the user associates the words in the new language with words in the language known to the user.
Alternatively, some language learning software applications may make the use of still images to help a user learn a new language. For example, a software application may present common words and/or phrases with a corresponding image for the user to associate the word with the image. In this case, the user learns the words one at a time in the order presented by the language learning software.
In general in one aspect, the invention relates to a method for facilitating the learning of a language, comprising: concurrently displaying a video and subtitles corresponding to the video, wherein the displayed subtitles comprise a plurality of selectable sentences; obtaining a selection from a user, comprising a selected sentence of the plurality of selectable sentences; subsequently displaying the selected sentence for selection of a word; obtaining a word selection of the selected sentence from the user; searching for and displaying at least one description comprising the user selected word.
In general in one aspect, the invention relates to a method for facilitating the learning of a language, comprising: concurrently displaying a video and subtitles corresponding to the video, wherein the displayed subtitles comprise a plurality of selectable words; obtaining a selection from a user, comprising a selected word of the plurality of selectable words; searching for and displaying at least one description comprising the user selected word.
In general in one aspect, the invention relates to a system for displaying a form, comprising: a data repository, comprising a video, subtitles corresponding to the video, a description of a word comprised in the subtitles; a user interface, comprising functionality to concurrently display the video and the corresponding subtitles as a plurality of selectable sentences, obtain a selection from a user comprising a sentence selected from the plurality of selectable sentences by a user and a word selected from the selected sentence, display at least one description comprising the user selected word; and a management engine comprising functionality to search for the at least one description comprising the user selected word.
In general in one aspect, the invention relates to a user interface, comprising: a video frame comprising a video; a subtitles frame comprising a plurality of selectable sentences corresponding to the video, and a sentence selector comprising functionality to select a sentence of the plurality of selectable sentences; a word selection frame comprising the selected sentence, and a word selector comprising functionality to select a word of the selected sentence; and a description frame comprising a description associated with the selected word.
In general in one aspect, the invention relates a computer readable medium comprising instructions for facilitating the learning of a language, the instructions comprising functionality for: concurrently displaying a video and subtitles corresponding to the video, wherein the displayed subtitles comprise a plurality of selectable sentences; obtaining a selection from a user, comprising a selected sentence of the plurality of selectable sentences; subsequently displaying the selected sentence for selection of a word; obtaining a word selection of the selected sentence from the user; searching for and displaying at least one description comprising the user selected word.
Other aspects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description and the appended claims.
Specific embodiments of the invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying figures. Like elements in the various figures are denoted by like reference numerals for consistency.
In the following detailed description of embodiments of the invention, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a more thorough understanding of the invention. However, it will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art that the invention may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known features have not been described in detail to avoid unnecessarily complicating the description.
In general, embodiments of the invention provide a method and system for facilitating the learning of a language. Specifically, embodiments of the invention allow for a concurrent display of video and corresponding subtitles, obtaining a user selection of at least a portion of the subtitles, and providing descriptions of the user selections.
In one or more embodiments of the invention, the system (100) is implemented using a client-server topology. The system (100) itself may be an enterprise application running on one or more servers, and in some embodiments could be a peer-to-peer system, or resident upon a single computing system. In addition, the system (100) is accessible from other machines using one or more interfaces (e.g. interface (170), web portals (not shown), or any other tool to access the system). In one or more embodiments of the invention, the system (100) is accessible over a network connection (not shown), such as the Internet, by one or more users. Information and/or services provided by the system (100) may also be stored and accessed over the network connection.
In one or more embodiments of the invention, the data repository (110) includes functionality to store video (120), subtitles (130), descriptions (140), examples (150), and exercises (160). In one or more embodiments of the invention, access to the data repository (110) is restricted and/or secured. As such, access to the data repository (110) may require authentication using passwords, secret questions, personal identification numbers (PINs), biometrics, and/or any other suitable authentication mechanism. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that elements or various portions of data stored in the data repository (110) may be distributed and stored in multiple data repositories. In one or more embodiments of the invention, the data repository (110) is flat, hierarchical, network based, relational, dimensional, object modeled, or structured otherwise. For example, data repository (110) may be maintained as a table of a SQL database. In addition, data in the data repository (110) may be verified against data stored in other repositories.
Continuing with
In one or more embodiments of the invention, subtitles (130) shown as stored in the data repository (110) correspond to text associated with the video (120), e.g., closed caption for a movie. The subtitles (130) may correspond to a portion or all of the dialogue in the video (120). The subtitles (130) include sentences (132) that are selectable when displayed on an interface (e.g., user interface (170)).
In one or more embodiments of the invention, each selectable sentence (132) corresponds to text displayed for a predetermined time period associated with the video (120). For example, a selectable sentence may be displayed from time 1:20:54.100 (Hours:Minutes:Seconds) to 1:20:57.867 relative to the start time of the corresponding video. Different selectable sentences (132) may also temporally overlap (i.e., be displayed at the same time) and each sentence (132) may be selected by a user. The selectable sentences (132) correspond to a combination of one or more words (137) that may or may not form a single grammatically complete sentence. A selectable sentence (132) may also correspond to more than one grammatically complete sentence. In one or more embodiments of the invention, each selectable sentence (132), as a whole, may be selected by a user for an immediate use or selected (i.e., marked) for later use. For example, the data repository may include an indicator (not shown) for each selectable sentence, that indicates whether the sentence has been selected by a user. Alternatively, a copy of the selected sentences (not shown) may be stored separately in the data repository.
In one or more embodiments of the invention, the words (137) within a selectable sentence (132) correspond to one or more units of a language that function as principal carriers of meanings. The words (137) within a selectable sentence (132) may themselves be individually selectable when displayed. In one or more embodiments of the invention, a single word (137) or a group of words (137) (e.g., a phrase) may be defined, and/or explained through descriptions (140), examples (160), and exercises (170).
The descriptions (140) correspond to text associated with the word (137) that facilitates the understanding of the word (137), in accordance with one or more embodiments of the invention. For example, the description associated with a word may be a definition of a word, a use of a word, a history of a word, a synonym, a conjugation, a translation of a word or any other suitable text for facilitating the understanding of the word. In one or more embodiments of the invention, the description (140) may be part of a database available on a network (e.g., an online dictionary).
The examples (150) correspond to different occurrences of the word (137) within the subtitles (130), in accordance with one or more embodiments of the invention. For instance, the examples (150) may correspond to one or more selectable sentences (132) in the subtitles (130) that include different occurrences of a selected word. The examples (150) may also include a portion of the video (120) corresponding to one or more sentences (132) in the subtitles (130) that include different occurrences of the selected word. For instance, if the selected word is “confiscate,” an example may include another occurrence of the word “confiscate” not selected by the user and may further include the portion of the video corresponding to the other occurrence of the word “confiscate.”
In one or more embodiments of the invention, the exercise(s)(160) corresponds to an interactive lesson that facilitates the understanding of a word (137). The exercise(s) (160) may include a virtual instructor and/or a virtual co-learner for interaction with the user. In one or more embodiments of the invention, the exercises (160) are pre-generated for a group of words (137) and activated upon request by a user. In another embodiment of the invention, the exercise (160) may be dynamically generated based on a user selected word (137). For example, when a user selects a word, an exemplary use of the word may be searched and found and thereafter converted into a question format to be presented by the virtual instructor. Accordingly, in one or more embodiments of the invention, the selection of a single word (137) may result in different exercises (160) being generated based on the use of the word that is found at the time of the selection. In one or more embodiments of the invention, different exercises (160) may correspond to different difficulty levels, where a user may be able to select a difficulty level and complete a suitable exercise that is selected based on the difficult level.
In one or more embodiments of the invention, the management engine (180) corresponds to a process, program, and/or application that interacts with the data repository (110) and the user interface (170) to facilitate the learning of a language. In one or more embodiments of the invention, the management engine (180) may include functionality to extract text from a media file to generate the subtitles (130). The management engine (180) may further include functionality to search for descriptions (140) matching the selected words (137), generate or select exercises (160) for the selected words (137), and find examples (150) of the selected words (137) within the subtitles (130). The management engine (180) may also include functionality to rank a video (120) and the corresponding subtitles (130) according to a difficulty index based on the difficulty level of the words (137) within the subtitles (130). Furthermore, the management engine (180) may include functionality to select different hints for a user, depending on the difficulty level of the words or the difficulty index of the video (120), during an exercise (160).
Continuing with
The user interface (170) may be a web interface, a graphical user interface (GUI), a command line interface, an application interface or any other suitable interface. The user interface (170) may include one or more web pages that can be accessed from a computer with a web browser and/or internet connection. Alternatively, the user interface (170) may be an application that resides on a computing system, such as a PC, mobile devices (e.g., cell phones, pagers, digital music players, mobile media centers), a PDA, and/or other computing devices of the users, and that communicate with the system (100) via one or more network connections and protocols. Regardless of the architecture of the system (100), communications between the system (100) and the user interface (170) may be secure, as described above. Individual components and functionalities of user interface (170) are shown in
The user interface (200) is essentially the same as user interface (170). As shown in
In one or more embodiments of the invention, the video frame (220) corresponds to a portion of the user interface (200) used to display video. The video frame (220) may include functionality to pause, stop, play, rewind and fast forward the video; and adjust volume, and display size. In one or more embodiments of the invention, the above controls may be triggered based on user input to any of the other frames. For example, a selection in the subtitles frame (230) may trigger a pause in the video frame (220).
In one or more embodiments of the invention, the subtitles frame (230) corresponds to a portion of the user interface (200) that includes functionality to display subtitles as selectable sentences (232) concurrently with the corresponding video in the video frame (220). The subtitles frame (230) further includes a sentence selector (233) which may be used to select a displayed selectable sentence (232). Specifically, the sentence selector (233) corresponds to any visual or non-visual tool that may be used to select a displayed selectable sentence (232). For example, the sentence selector may be a mouse pointer which can be used to select a displayed selectable sentence by clicking. Another example may involve numbered selectable sentences, each of which may be selected using a keyboard.
Continuing with
As shown in
Continuing with
The example frame (250) corresponds to a portion of the user interface (200) that includes functionality to show examples (255), in accordance with one or more embodiments of the invention. As described previously, examples (255) may include video and/or subtitles for alternate occurrences of a selected word. Accordingly, the example frame (250) may include functionality to display subtitles and/or the video of alternate occurrences of a selected word. In one or more embodiments of the invention, the example frame (250) may also include functionality to display videos available on a network (e.g., LAN, internet) that include the selected word.
The exercise frame (260) corresponds to a portion of the user interface (200) that includes functionality to display interactive exercises (265) and obtain input for the exercises (265) from the user. The exercise frame (260) may include multiple sub-frames, e.g., corresponding to the user, an instructor, and/or a co-learner. The instructor and/or the co-learner may be part of a computer generated program to help facilitate learning or may correspond to different users of the system. For example, the co-learner frame may correspond to input from a second user located at the same physical location as a first user, or connected to the user interface via a network (e.g., the internet). Similarly, the instructor frame may also correspond another user or a computer generated animation that receives the user selected words and executes exercises based on the user selected word to facilitate learning. Accordingly, in one or more embodiments of the invention, the exercise frame (260) may be displayed on multiple user interfaces (e.g., user interface (200)) corresponding to a multiple users and used concurrently by the multiple users to facilitate learning of a word selected by at least one connected user.
Initially, a video and corresponding subtitles made up of selectable sentences are concurrently displayed, in accordance with one or more embodiments of the invention (Step 310). The subtitles may be displayed as layered on top of a portion of the video or in a separate non-overlapping space. Next, a selection of a selectable sentence is obtained from a user (Step 320). Depending on a mode of operation, the selection may result in an immediate display of the user selected sentence (Step 330), or the selected sentence may be marked for a future display of the user selected sentence (Step 330). The future display of the user selected sentence may require further user input. For example, a user may navigate through all selected sentences at any point (e.g., after a section of the video, or completion of the video), and provide user input to display a previously selected sentence. In one or more embodiments of the invention, the display of the user selected sentence may be filtered to include words of a minimum and/or maximum difficulty level. In one or more embodiments of the invention, the display of the user selected sentence may result in pausing the video or alternatively, may be displayed while the video continues in play mode.
Continuing with
Once the word has been selected, a search for a description of the word is made (Step 350). The description may be searched for in a pre-generated search database corresponding to the subtitles or may be searched for dynamically in a data repository (e.g., over a network). In one or more embodiments of the invention, a search engine on the internet (or any other network), may be used to search for a description of the selected word. Searching for the description may include searching for definitions, synonyms, examples, alternate uses of the selected word in the subtitles, a video corresponding to use of the selected word and/or any other suitable criteria which would facilitate the understanding of the selected word.
If a description is found (Step 360), the description is displayed (Step 370). The description may be displayed concurrently with the video, or alternatively, the description may be displayed after pausing or stopping the video. If the description is not found, an alert may be provided (Step 365). For example, an alert may be provided to a user, to a system administrator, to a programmer, or to any other suitable entity. In one or more embodiments of the invention, the alert may be an instruction to obtain the description at a future time (e.g., when a connection to the internet is available again), or may be an error notification.
Next, after providing the description, a decision is made whether to perform an exercise to better understand the selected word (Step 380). The decision may be based on the difficulty level of the selected word. For example, all words at a predetermined difficulty level are automatically designated for exercises. Alternatively, the decision to perform an exercise may be provided by a user.
Continuing with
In one or more embodiments of the invention, words and/or sentences selected by the user may be used to generate a personalized database (not shown). Specifically, the words selected by the user may be stored along with a corresponding description to generate a customized dictionary for the user. Furthermore, the personalized database may include a collection of customized exercises and/or customized examples.
The invention may be implemented on virtually any type of computer regardless of the platform being used. For example, as shown in
Further, those skilled in the art will appreciate that one or more elements of the aforementioned computer system (500) may be located at a remote location and connected to the other elements over a network. Further, the invention may be implemented on a distributed system having a plurality of nodes, where each portion of the invention (e.g., object store layer, communication layer, simulation logic layer, etc.) may be located on a different node within the distributed system.
In one embodiment of the invention, the node corresponds to a computer system. Alternatively, the node may correspond to a processor with associated physical memory. The node may alternatively correspond to a processor with shared memory and/or resources. Further, software instructions to perform embodiments of the invention may be stored on a computer readable medium such as a compact disc (CD), a diskette, a tape, a file, or any other computer readable storage device.
While the invention has been described with respect to a limited number of embodiments, those skilled in the art, having benefit of this disclosure, will appreciate that other embodiments can be devised which do not depart from the scope of the invention as disclosed herein. Accordingly, the scope of the invention should be limited only by the attached claims.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 60917295 | May 2007 | US |
