METHOD, SYSTEM AND COMPUTER PROGRAM FOR COMPUTER-ASSISTED COMPREHENSION OF TEXTS

Abstract

A solution is proposed for the data-handling system-assisted comprehension of texts (particularly, when they are written in a foreign language). For this purpose, a difficulty index is associated with each known word (for example, according to its frequency of use in standard texts). The words of a current document opened using the data-handling system are sorted according to their difficulty indexes. The words having the difficulty indexes higher than a threshold value (for example, based on the skill of a reader) are selected as difficult. A translation of each difficult word is then extracted from a dictionary; this translation is displayed close to each occurrence of the corresponding difficult word.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Embodiments of the present invention, as well as further features and advantages thereof, will be best understood with reference to the following detailed description, given purely by way of a nonrestrictive indication, to be read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a pictorial representation of a computer that can be used to practice the solution according to an embodiment of the invention;

FIGS. 2, 3a- 3b and 4a-4b illustrate exemplary applications of the solution according to different embodiments of the invention; and

FIG. 5 is a collaboration diagram representing the roles of different software modules implementing the solution according to an embodiment of the invention.

Claims

1. A method for facilitating computer-assisted comprehension of texts by a user of a data processing system, said method comprising: providing a digital representation of a text, the text including at least one occurrence of each one of a plurality of expressions,associating each expression with a difficulty index indicative of a corresponding comprehension difficulty,selecting a set of the expressions according to a comparison of the corresponding difficulty indexes with a threshold value,associating each selected expression with a corresponding explanation, andoutputting at least part of the text with an indication of the explanation of each corresponding selected expression.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein associating each expression with the difficulty index comprises: determining a frequency of use of the expression, andcalculating the difficulty index according to the frequency of use.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein determining the frequency of use of the expression comprises: calculating a percentage of the occurrences of the expression in a set of predefined sample texts.

4. The method according to claim 2, wherein associating each expression with the difficulty index further comprises: calculating a further percentage of the occurrences of the expression in the text, andupdating the frequency of use of the expression according to the further percentage.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein outputting at least part of the text with the indication of the explanation of each corresponding selected expression comprises: displaying the at least part of the text with the explanation of each selected expression proximity to each occurrence of the selected expression.

6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: selecting a further expression,updating the difficulty index associated with the further selected expression to increase the corresponding comprehension difficulty,associating the further selected expression with the corresponding explanation, andadding an indication of the corresponding explanation of the further selected expression to the output of the at least part of the text.

7. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: deselecting a selected expression,updating the difficulty index associated with the deselected expression to decrease the corresponding comprehension difficulty, andremoving the corresponding explanation of the deselected expression from the output of the at least part of the text.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the text is written in a first language, and associating each selected expression with the corresponding explanation comprises: extracting a translation in a second language of the selected expression from a dictionary.

9. A machine-readable medium having a plurality of instructions executable by a machine embodied therein, wherein said plurality of instructions when executed cause said machine to perform a method for facilitating computer-assisted comprehension of texts by a user of a data processing system comprising: providing a digital representation of a text, the text including at least one occurrence of each one of a plurality of expressions,associating each expression with a difficulty index indicative of a corresponding comprehension difficulty,selecting a set of the expressions according to a comparison of the corresponding difficulty indexes with a threshold value,associating each selected expression with a corresponding explanation, andoutputting at least part of the text with an indication of the explanation of each corresponding selected expression.

10. A system for facilitating computer-assisted comprehension of texts by a user of a data processing system comprising: means for providing a digital representation of a text, the text including at least one occurrence of each one of a plurality of expressions,means for associating each expression with a difficulty index indicative of a corresponding comprehension difficulty,means for selecting a set of the expressions according to a comparison of the corresponding difficulty indexes with a threshold value,means for associating each selected expression with a corresponding explanation, andmeans for outputting at least part of the text with an indication of the explanation of each corresponding selected expression.