System and method for the dynamic presentation of the contents of a plurality of documents for rapid skimming

Abstract

A method and system for the dynamic presentation of the contents of a plurality of documents on a display is disclosed. The method and system comprises receiving a plurality of documents and providing a plurality of topically rich capsule overviews corresponding to the plurality of documents. The method and system also includes dynamically delivering document content encapsulated in the plurality of capsule overviews. In so doing, a system and method in accordance with the present invention can present thematic capsule overviews of the documents to users. A capsule overiew is derived for the entire document, which will depict the core content of an average length article in a more accurate and representative manner than utilizing conventional techniques. The capsule overviews, delivered in a variety of dynamic presentation modes, allow the user to quickly get a sense of what a document is about, and decide whether they want to read it in more detail. If so, the system and method greatly facilitate the process of focused navigation into the parts of the document which may be of particular interest to the user. In a preferred embodiment, the capsule overviews include a containment hierarchy which relates the different information levels in a document together, and which includes a collection of highly salient topic stamps embedded in layers of progressively richer and more informative contextualized text fragments. The novel presentation metaphors which the invention utilizes are based on notions of temporal typography, in particular for exploiting the interactions between form and content.

What is claimed is:  
     
         1 . A method for the dynamic presentation of the contents of a plurality of documents on a display; comprising the steps of: 
 a) receiving a plurality of documents;    b) providing a plurality of capsule overviews corresponding to the plurality of documents; and    c) dynamically delivering document content as encapsulated within the plurality of capsule overviews.    
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  in which a plurality of capsule overviews include a containment hierarchy.  
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2  in which the containment hierarchy of information-bearing units provides different levels of abstractions of the document.  
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3  in which the abstractions comprise at least one topic stamp which is embedded within a plurality of layers of progressively more informative text fragments related to the document.  
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4  wherein the at least one topic stamp is highly salient.  
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 2  in which the containment hierarchy is accessed automatically.  
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 2  in which the containment hierarchy is accessed manually.  
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 5  in which the document content is delivered via a TopicsTicker viewer.  
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 6  in which the document content is delivered via a Rapid Serial Visual Presentation viewer.  
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 6  in which the document content is delivered via a ViewTool viewer.  
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 7  in which the document content is delivered via a Rapid Serial Visual Presentation viewer.  
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 7  in which the document content is delivered via a VeiwTool viewer.  
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 9  in which the Rapid Serial Presentation viewer comprises the cycling through a plurality of topic stamps and their associated relational contexts for the plurality of documents.  
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 13  in which the cycling step comprises: 
 a) selecting a document from the plurality of documents;  
 b) selecting a topic stamp from the document from the capsule overview;  
 c) selecting a relational context relating to the topic stamp from the capsule overview;  
 d) retrieving a canonical form of the topic stamp from the capsule overview;  
 e) displaying the topic stamp in background and the relational context in the foreground for a time period that is calculated automatically; and  
 f) repeating steps a-e for the plurality of documents.  
 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14  in which the time period for display is calculated based on amount of the relational context.  
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15  wherein the topic stamp and relational context are displayed at different intensities.  
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16  wherein the topic stamp is dark and relational context is translucent.  
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 14  wherein the topic stamp and relational context zoom in and out.  
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the data is displayed via a screen saver.  
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the data is displayed on a large screen projection.  
     
     
         21 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the data is displayed in a background window on a computer.