Patent Application
20070294222
The news system 110 may be comprised of one or more computers and/or servers capable of communicating through the network 112 to receive and transmit data. The news system 110 may be comprised of various units including, but not limited to, a network communication unit 128 (e.g., Ethernet card, IEEE 802.11 capabilities, dial-up modem, cable-modem, etc.), storage unit 126 (e.g., RAM, ROM, non-volatile memory, hard drive, etc.), and processor 124 (e.g., a microprocessor, Intel® Pentium processor, AMD® processor, programmable logic board, etc.). The storage unit 126 may store computer-executable instructions on a computer-readable medium. Moreover, the processor 124 may be coupled to the storage unit 126 and execute the computer-executable instructions to perform steps in accordance with various aspects of the invention. In another example, the processor 124 may be programmed with computer-executable instructions in accordance with aspects of the invention.
The news system 110, as will be explained in detail below, may select and transmit requests for content from a wireless feeder device 106 in wireless communication with the network 112. Wireless feeder devices may include, but are not limited to, mobile phones 108, wireless handheld devices such as PDAs, laptop computers with global positioning system (GPS) capabilities, digital cameras with wireless capabilities and other appropriate wireless devices. The network 112 may be made up of one or more wired networks (e.g., LAN, Ethernet, ISDN, DSL, cable, dial-up, etc.) and/or wireless networks (e.g., WAN, WiFi, Bluetooth, IEEE 802.11, satellite, etc.).
In step 202, the news system 110 receives through the network communication unit 128 a content query from a user computing device 102 in communication with the news system. The content query may be search keywords with or without boolean connectors. In another embodiment, the user may indicate a location or region on a map displayed on the user computing device 102. In that case, the content query is comprised of the location information corresponding to the location or region indicated by the user. For example, the location information may be a street address, street intersection, zip code, city, state, or some other regional designation. At least one benefit of providing a map interface is the increase ease with which a user may construct a content query. In another example, the content query may be comprised of both location information indicated on a map and textual information provided by the user. At least one benefit of such an embodiment is the increased focus with which a user may construct a content query.
In step 204, the processor 124 in the news system 110 processes the content query to determine if content corresponding to the content query is available on the news system. While processing the content query, the news system may perform a semantical analysis of the content query to identify a core location and/or core event relating to the content corresponding to the content query. For example, when a user desires news content about a particular event taking place at a particular location, the user's content query might contain keywords relating to the location and event. The news system performs a semantical analysis using, among other things, keyword comparisons to attempt to identify a core location and/or core event for the content query. The core location and/or core event may act as an index to the content. Thus, if a first user sends a content query of “chicago baseball game today” and a second user sends a content query of “wrigley baseball May 11”, then the semantical analysis is able to identify that both content queries are referring to the same core location and core event (i.e., the Chicago Cubs playing baseball at Wrigley Field today, May 11). In this example, the core location may be “Wrigley Field” and the core event may be “baseball game.”
In another example in accordance with aspects of the invention, the semantical analysis of the content query in step 204 may be based, at least in part, on prior related content queries. The news system 110 may record prior content queries that users have provided for a particular core location and/or core event. Thus, the semantical analysis may be based on historical information collected by the news system. In one example, a hundred users submit content queries with the objective of obtaining content about the Chicago Cubs playing baseball at Wrigley Field today, May 11, but they use different keywords in their content queries. The news system updates its historical information to indicate the different keywords (e.g., Chicago, Wrigley, baseball, etc.) that users use when requesting content about this particular core location and core event. Therefore, the news system 110 is better equipped to use semantics to analyze a content query received from a user computing device 102.
In an alternative embodiment, during step 204 the news system may perform a geographic analysis of the content query to identify a core location and core event relating to the content corresponding to the content query. A geographic analysis may be appropriate when, for example, the user uses a map display to construct a content query, as was explained earlier. In that case, the content query may be comprised of location information. The geographic analysis may include identifying core locations at or near the location information. Furthermore, as with symantical analysis, prior related content queries may also be used, at least in part, in the geographic analysis of the content query. For example, many users selecting a location near Addison Street and Clark Street (i.e., the location of Wrigley Field) on the day of a Chicago Cubs baseball game may be used during geographic analysis to identify Wrigley Field as the core location and Chicago Cubs baseball game as the core event.
If the news system finds (in step 206) that the content corresponding to the content query is available on the news system, then in step 208 the news system 110 transmits through the network communication unit 128 the content to the user computing device 102. Meanwhile, if the news system finds (in step 206) that the content corresponding to the content query is not available on the news system, then in step 212 the news system 110 updates a popularity indicator related to the content. A popularity indicator may be an incremental counter for monitoring the number of times a request for a particular content results in a miss (i.e., the content is not available on the news system). At least one benefit of a popularity indicator is the enhanced responsiveness of the news system to users' collective desires. The news system 110 may set a predetermined popularity threshold value to designate when there is sufficient user demand for particular content. For example, the predetermined popularity threshold value may be set to ‘10’ (i.e., 10 requests for the same missing content) and stored in the storage unit 126.
The news system 110 compares (in step 214), the popularity indicator to a predetermined popularity threshold value. If the popularity indicator exceeds the predetermined popularity threshold value, then the news system selects (in step 218) at least one wireless feeder device 106 in communication with the news system 110, transmits (in step 220) a content request to those wireless feeder devices, and transmits (in step 222) an indication of a qualified miss to the user computing device 102. Although step 222 appears last in the flowchart of
In one example in accordance with aspects of the invention, the news system may select (in step 218) at least one wireless feeder device based on the features available on each of the wireless feeder devices. For example, a wireless feeder device 106 with camera functionality may be desirable for an accident event, while microphone functionality may be desirable for a speaking event (e.g., a politician's speech). In addition, the news system may also select (in step 218) at least one wireless feeder device based, at least in part, on the physical location of the wireless feeder devices. In one example, the news system may be able to determine the physical location of a wireless feeder device 106 using global positioning system (GPS) capabilities in the wireless feeder device 106 or using other locater technologies. At least one benefit of using physical location in selecting a wireless feeder device is that the device may be more likely to obtain the content for the particular core location and core event requested.
In step 220, the news system 110 transmits a content request to the appropriate wireless feeder devices. A content request may be comprised of location information and event information. The location information and event information may be used by the wireless feeder device 106 to determine the content to provide the news system 110. The wireless feeder device 106 transmits the appropriate content to the news system 110 and the content is indexed along with the other content in the news system 110.
When the news system compares (in step 214) the popularity indicator to a predetermined popularity threshold value, if the popularity indicator does not exceed the predetermined popularity threshold value, then the news system transmits (in step 216) an indication of a miss to the user computing device 102. The indication of a miss transmitting in step 216 may be any numeric, symbolic, or other indication informing the user of a user computing device that the content corresponding to the user's content query is not available from the news system 110.
Referring to
Furthermore, the news system compares (in step 224) the overload indicator to a predetermined overload threshold value. In one example, the predetermined overload threshold value may be set to ‘20’ (i.e., 20 requests for the same content). If the overload indicator exceeds the predetermined overload threshold value, the news system selects (in step 218) at least one wireless feeder device in communication with the news system and transmits (in step 220) a content request to those wireless feeder devices. As explained earlier, the news system selects (in step 218) at least one wireless feeder device based on the features available on each of the wireless feeder devices. As also explained earlier, the news system may select (in step 218) at least one wireless feeder device based, at least in part, on the physical location of the wireless feeder devices.
Meanwhile, if the content is available on the news system, the news system sends the content accordingly. The user computing device 102 receives and displays (in step 306) the content to the user on the display unit 114. The user of the user computing device 102 may review the content provided and indicate (by providing user input) if the content provided failed to satisfy the user's content query. The user may indicate this by pressing the miss indication button (i.e., any input means on the input unit 116 of the user computing device 102 designated as indicating that the content returned for a content query is incorrect or deficient). In accordance with aspects of the invention, the news system 110 receives a miss indication message from the user computing device 102 in response to content transmitted to the user computing device, if the user presses the miss indication button. The miss indication button is one aspect of the invention that allows the user to play an active role in requesting and generating content. The news system 110 processes the miss indication message and may use it accordingly in the semantical and geographical analysis (in step 204,
While it is understood that the invention may be implemented as a method, it may also be implemented in a computer readable medium having computer-executable instructions. Aspects of the invention may be implemented by way of software, hardware, or a combination thereof. Computer-readable media includes any available media that can be access by a processor in a computing device or system (e.g., news system 110, user computing device 102, wireless feeder device 106). Other features of the invention will become apparent from the foregoing detailed description when taken in conjunction with the drawings.
The present invention has sometimes been described in terms of preferred and illustrative embodiments thereof. Numerous other embodiments, modifications and variations within the scope and spirit of the appended claims will occur to persons of ordinary skill in the art from a review of this disclosure.
