1732 results about "Hyperlink" patented technology

In one embodiment, the invention is a method and apparatus for annotating media streams. One embodiment of a method for facilitating creation of an annotated media stream by a user includes receiving the media stream from the user, mapping at least one item of supplemental content to at least a portion of the media stream to produce the annotated media stream, and storing the annotated media stream. In another embodiment, a method for distributing an annotated media stream provided by a user includes receiving the annotated media stream from the user, where the annotated media stream includes at least one item of supplemental content mapped to at least a portion of a media stream to produce the annotated media stream, storing the annotated media stream, receiving a request from a viewer to view the annotated media stream, and distributing the annotated media stream to the viewer. In another embodiment, a method for distributing an annotated media stream provided by a user includes distributing the annotated media stream to a viewer, where the annotated media stream includes at least one item of supplemental content mapped to at least a portion of a media stream to produce the annotated media stream, and collecting a commission when the annotated media stream is viewed by the viewer. In one embodiment, the collecting requires further action on a part of the viewer (such as selection of a hyperlink contained in the at least one item of supplemental content or consummation of a commercial transaction).

Streaming compressed digital hypervideo received upon a digital communications network is decoded (decompressed) and played in a client-computer-based "video on web VCR" software system. Scene changes, if not previously marked upstream, are automatically detected, and typically twenty-one past scenes are displayed as thumbnail images. Hyperlinks within the main video scene, and / or any thumbnail image, show as hotspots, with text annotations typically appearing upon a cursor "mouse over". All hyperlinks-as are provided and inserted by, inter alia, the upstream network service provider (the "ISP")-may be, and preferably are, full-custom dynamically-resolved to each subscriber / user / viewer ("SUV") upon volitional "click throughs" by the SUV, including retrospectively on past hypervideo scenes as appear within the thumbnail images. Hyperlinking permits (i) retrieving information and commercials, including streaming video / hypervideo, from any of local storage, a network (or Internet) service provider ("ISP"), a network content provider, and / or an advertiser network site, (ii) entering a contest of skill or a lottery of chance, (iii) gambling, (iv) buying (and less often, selling), (v) responding to a survey, and expressing an opinion, and / or (vi) sounding an alert.

An interactive entertainment and information system using a television set-top box, wherein pages of information are periodically provided to the set-top box for user interaction therewith. The pages include associated meta-data defining active locations on each page. When a page is displayed, the user interacts with the active locations on the page by entering commands via a remote control device, whereby the system reads the meta-data and takes the action associated with the location. Actions include moving to other active locations, hyperlinking to other pages, entering user form data and submitting the data as a form into memory. The form data may be read from memory, and the pages may be related to a conventional television program, thereby providing significant user interactivity with the television.

A smart electronic receipt system that provides intelligent receipts, called Smart Receipts, that electronically document a transaction between two parties and maintains a persistent connection between the two parties following a successful online transaction. A Trusted Agent on the Buyer's client system creates an order record which is stored in a database on a Trusted Agent Server and starts the transaction process with the merchant. A Smart Receipt is delivered by a Smart Receipt Agent over a secure connection from the merchant to the Trusted Agent Server upon successful completion of a purchase and reflects the details of the transaction. It is stored in a secure database on the Trusted Agent Server and is made available to the Buyer (user) through a Trusted Agent located on his machine. The Trusted Agent Server compares the order record Limited Edition Digital Objects (LEDOs) stored in database with the Smart Receipt's LEDO to find the corresponding order record. The Smart Receipt provides the customer with detailed information about an online purchase in a standardized format. Hyperlinks embedded in the Smart Receipt enable the customer to access customer service and order status. The merchant may also embed addition-al services within the Smart Receipt, including special offers for future purchases. Offers provided in a Smart Receipt can be personalized to a user's preferences which are stored on the Trusted Agent Server. Each Smart Receipt is comprised of a chain of LEDOs with each LEDO object having a unique owner. A Smart Receipt is a dynamic entity and is continuously updated until the Buyer deletes it from the Trusted Agent Server.

A method for making a hypermedium page interactive, the hypermedium page displayed by a network browser, includes the step of selecting a hyperlink on the hypermedium page displayed on a client machine, the hyperlink identifying a desired computing resource. A hyperlink configuration file is retrieved, the hyperlink configuration file corresponding to the hyperlink and identifying a server machine. A client agent is started on the client machine. The client agent creates, via a terminal services session, a communication link to a virtual machine executing on the server identified by the hyperlink configuration file, the virtual machine executed by a hypervisor executing in the terminal services session provided by an operating system executing on the server. The client agent receives data from the virtual machine and displays, on the client machine, the received data without intervention by the network browser.

A visual index method provides graphical output from search engine results or other URL lists. Search engine results or a list of URLs are passed to a web crawler that retrieves the web page and other media information present at the associated URL. The web crawler then passes this information to a page renderer which also receives image scale and format information regarding the web pages present at the URLs. The graphical information as well as other media information is then rendered into a reduced graphical form so that the page may be summarily reviewed by the user. Media, visual, or other information may also be downwardly scaled as appropriate or rendered in its original as appropriate (such as with audio data streams). A variety of convenient formats allows the user to quickly and readily scan the presentation at the URL web pages or other data present. Image maps associated with the reduced images may also provide hyperlink access to the linked web page and / or multimedia allowing the links present on the web page in its original to be accessed through the reduced image provided by the web page renderer.

A system for internet navigation using soft hyperlinks is disclosed, in connection with an illustrative information retrieval system with which it may be used. The navigation tool provides freedom to move through a collection of electronic documents independent of any hyperlink which has been inserted within an HTML page. A user can click on any term in a document page, not only those that are hyperlinked. For example, when a user clicks on an initial word within the document, the disclosed system employs a search engine in the background to retrieve a list of related terms. In an illustrative embodiment, a compass-like display appears with pointers indicating the first four terms returned by the search engine. These returned terms have the highest degree of correlation with the initial search term in a lexical knowledge base that the search engine constructs automatically. The disclosed system allows the user to move from the current document to one of a number of document lists which cover different associations between the initial word clicked on by the user and other terms extracted from within the retrieved list of related terms. The disclosed system may further allow the user to move to a document that is considered most related to the initial word clicked on by the user, or to a list of documents that are relevant to a phrase or paragraph selection indicated by the user within the current page.

Methods, programs (120) and apparatus (100) are disclosed for accessing and heterogenous data sources (150-153) and presenting information obtained therefrom. Specifically, the data sources may have hierarchical data, which may be presented by identifying a context data node from the data, the context data node having one or more descendent data nodes. At least one data pattern is determined in the descendent data nodes. At least one display type is assigned to the current context data node on the basis of the at least one data pattern. Thereafter, the method presents at least a subset of the descendent data nodes according to one of the assigned display types. Also disclosed is a method of browsing an hierarchically-represented data source. A user operation is interpreted to identify a context data node from the data source, the context data node having one or more descendent data nodes. At least one data pattern in the descendent data nodes is then determined and at least one display type is assigned to the current context data node on the basis of the at least one data pattern. A subset of the descendent data nodes is then presented according to one of the assigned display types, the subset including at least one hyperlink (3401,3402) having as its target a descendant data node of the current context data node. A further user operation is then interpreted to select the at least one hyperlink, the selection resulting in the current context data node being replaced with the data node corresponding to the target of the selected hyperlink. These steps may be repeated until no further hyperlinks to descendent data nodes are included in the subset. Other methods associated with access and presentation are also disclosed.

A system and method provides universal access to voice-based documents containing information formatted using MIME and HTML standards using customized extensions for voice information access and navigation. These voice documents are linked using HTML hyper-links that are accessible to subscribers using voice commands, touch-tone inputs and other selection means. These voice documents and components in them are addressable using HTML anchors embedding HTML universal resource locators (URLs) rendering them universally accessible over the Internet. This collection of connected documents forms a voice web. The voice web includes subscriber-specific documents including speech training files for speaker dependent speech recognition, voice print files for authenticating the identity of a user and personal preference and attribute files for customizing other aspects of the system in accordance with a specific subscriber.

The method and the information processing system dynamically creates an HTML document with at least one embedded hyperlink code therein. The HTML document is based upon a source document provided by a manufacturer or a supplier of services. Typically, the system and the method is operable in a client-server computer environment. A database is provided on the server computer system which database associates location data of a plurality of data strings in the source document with hyperlink addresses. The location data in the database maps at least one predetermined data string in the source document. An HTML document, based upon the source document, is published with an image tag on, in or near the predetermined data string. As an example, the string may be a "part number" or a string of words "SONY PLAYSTATION II.". The published HTML document has an image tag on, at or near the part number and a map attribute command which supplies or generates an HTML location data unique to the image tag location in the HTML document when the browser calls the server's common gateway interface (CGI). The image tag URL points to the database on the server. The server, via the database provides a corresponding hyperlink address, associated with the unique location data correlated to the HTML location data, to the browser on the client computer system. The method and the system then publishes and embeds in the original or initial HTML document at, on or near the predetermined data string or part number an active hyperlink tag (an embedded code) with the corresponding hyperlink address obtained from the database.

A time sequential signal comprising audiovisual content and hyperlinks is received and displayed on a display device by the systems of the invention in a time sequential manner. The display of the time sequential signal is paused whenever a displayed hyperlink is selected. While pausing the display, data corresponding to any selected hyperlink is accessed and displayed on the display device. The corresponding data may comprise a web page accessed through the Internet or an interval page that is transmitted within the vertical blanking intervals of the time sequential signal. While pausing the display of the time sequential signal, the time sequential signal is recorded so that it can be viewed in the order it was recorded as soon as a resume display command is received by the system.

The present invention is directed to a computer-implemented method and apparatus for searching in response to Internet-based search queries using a search engine and an electronic database. According to one example embodiment of the present invention, data sets representing published items are input, for example, scanned-in or sent electronically, and stored in a searchable database. Each data set includes text from at least one published item. Responsive to the search query, a search engine searches for and identifies relevant web pages and data sets representing published items and, in a more specific embodiment, ranked characterizations are returned for the relevant web pages and published items. An electronic path can be provided with the published item for accessing further information about the published item. In one embodiment, the electronic path is a hyperlink from a characterization of a relevant published item to a more complete electronic representation of the relevant published item. Publishers provide authorization to display copyrighted materials through a permission protocol.

A method and apparatus are provided for determining when electronic documents stored in a large collection of documents are similar to one another. A plurality of similarity information is derived from the documents. The similarity information may be based on a variety of factors, including hyperlinks in the documents, text similarity, user click-through information, similarity in the titles of the documents or their location identifiers, and patterns of user viewing. The similarity information is fed to a combination function that synthesizes the various measures of similarity information into combined similarity information. Using the combined similarity information, an objective function is iteratively maximized in order to yield a generalized similarity value that expresses the similarity of particular pairs of documents. In an embodiment, the generalized similarity value is used to determine the proper category, among a taxonomy of categories in an index, cache or search system, into which certain documents belong.

A method of inducing content uploads in an online network includes the steps of storing content relating to a first member of the network that is submitted by a second member of the network, receiving approval of the content from the first member, and associating the content with the first member. The uploaded content may comprise an image file containing a photo of the first member and a caption associated with the photo image. The second user uploads the content relating to the first member using a GUI. This GUI is made available to the second user through a hyperlink that appears when a profile page of the first member is accessed if the degree of separation between the first member and the second member is less than or equal to a maximum degree of separation set by the first user. On the other hand, the hyperlink to this GUI will not appear when the profile page of the first member is accessed by the second member if the degree of separation between the first member and the second member is greater than the maximum degree of separation set by the first user. The default setting for this maximum degree of separation is one.

An information handling system according to the invention comprises an input for receiving search requests seeking one or more specified files; a search engine for searching a database for names of files satisfying a received search request; and server logic for serving a results page comprising the names of files satisfying a received search request and a hyperlink associated with each file name. Each hyperlink in the results, when activated causes transmission of a request for the selected file that is associated with the link. The request for the selected file is directed to a file server controlling a database of files including the selected file. The file server responds to the request by serving a content (or media) file comprising a copy of the selected file with an embedded request for information for presentation to the person from whom the search request was received. When the user runs the downloaded content file the content file sends a request for service to a site (e.g., a reflector server) that responds by serving information such as advertising to the requester.

Methods and systems for single sign-on user access to multiple web servers are provided. A user is authenticated at a first web server (e.g., by user name and password). The first web server provides a web page to the user having a service selector (e.g., a hyperlink comprising the URL of a second web server offering the service indicated by the selector). When the user activates the service selector, the first web server constructs and transmits an encrypted authentication token (e.g., a cookie) from the first web server to a second web server via the user client. The first and second web servers share a sub-domain. The authentication token comprises an expiration time and is digitally signed by the first web server and is authenticated at the second web server. Upon authentication, the second web server allows the user to conduct a session at the second web server.

A search query is received over a wireless network (20), from a mobile device (10), and a response involves obtaining content summaries of search results relating to the search query, preparing a hypertext page for presentation by the mobile device. The page has a number of the content summaries extending over a number of screenviews. The page has an overview and has hyperlinks for intra-page navigation by a user between screenviews of different parts of the page. The page is sent to the mobile device over the wireless network to enable the content summaries to be browsed without requiring one or more further query and response operations across the wireless network. This can reduce the number of query response operations, by providing more information than the conventional one page annotated list, and presenting the information for easier browsing. The user can then download a selected content item over the network.

The present invention provides a system and method for processing real-time rapid capture, annotation and creation of an annotated hyper-video map for environments. The method includes processing video, audio and GPS data to create the hyper-video map which is further enhanced with textual, audio and hyperlink annotations that will enable the user to see, hear, and operate in an environment with cognitive awareness. Thus, this annotated hyper-video map provides a seamlessly navigable, situational awareness and indexable high-fidelity immersive visualization of the environment.

A stateful or stateless cookie operations server machine can provide real-time, actionable, user-specific tracking abilities in the collection of impressions and user interactions with a company's digital properties. The client-side code (e.g., in a web browser) may request an element configured with parameters and a hyperlink (e.g., URL) that causes parameters to be sent to a remote server. The remote server may process the parameters and perform various operations based on the parameters. Mathematical and / or other operations may be performed using the parameters. The remote server may retrieve a configuration corresponding to the request. The remote server may generate or transform content, based on the configuration. The remote server may transmit the transformed content.

A system and method for displaying still video images related to video content in an interactive broadcast television system. The system and method of the present invention may also be used for simulating an Internet home page on an interactive television system. The present invention thus supports hyperlinked web-like navigational capabilities in an interactive television system. According to the method of the present invention, the video delivery system provides or broadcasts one or more audio / video channels each comprising video content and also provides or broadcasts at least one still image channel comprising a plurality of still video images, preferably MPEG-2 compressed still images. The user or viewer can select options displayed on the television screen to view desired information. When the set top box receives user input selecting an option to view one of the linked still images, the set top box captures the requested image from the still image broadcast channel, stores the image in memory, and displays the captured still video image corresponding to the selection. The still image being displayed may have associated interactive program content for displaying further selections, wherein these selections may be for viewing other images or content, for ordering information, or purchasing products. The user can thus selectively navigate between the video content and stills in a web-like hyperlinked fashion. In one embodiment, when a user is navigating through still images, the television program or video content which was being viewed is displayed in a small window overlaid on the still image being displayed. Also, when the set top box captures a requested image from the still image broadcast channel, the set top box preferably also pre-caches or pre-loads other related still images based on the probabilty that these related images will be subsequently requested by the user. The invention also includes an embodiment which provides user requested still images "on demand" on a dedicated "search" channel.

The present invention applies speech recognition technology to remote access, verification, and identification applications. Speech recognition is used to raise the security level of many types of transaction systems which previously had serious safety drawbacks, including: point of sale systems, home authorization systems, systems for establishing a call to a called party (including prison telephone systems), internet access systems, web site access systems, systems for obtaining access to protected computer networks, systems for accessing a restricted hyperlink, desktop computer security systems, and systems for gaining access to a networked server. A general speech recognition system using communication is also presented. Further, different types of speech recognition methodologies are useful with the present invention, such as "simple" security methods and systems, multi-tiered security methods and systems, conditional multi-tiered security methods and systems, and randomly prompted voice token methods and systems.

A page update handler, which may be loaded by a web browser as part of a web page, adds functionality for dynamically updating the web page with content supplied by a content server. In one embodiment, when a mouse-over event occurs with respect to a recognized item on the web page, such as a hyperlink that matches a particular link signature, the page update handler displays a corresponding overlay display object within the web page. The overlay display object displays information about or associated with the recognized item, and may provide functionality for the user to further interact with the content server. In one embodiment, an operator of a web site that is separate from the content server can enable overlay display objects within its web pages by merely adding an update handler tag to one or more corresponding HTML documents.

Various embodiments of the present invention disclose a method for Business Intelligence (BI) metrics on unstructured data. Unstructured data is collected from numerous data sources that include unstructured data as ingested data. The ingested data is indexed and represents hyperlink and extracted data and metadata for each document. Thereafter, the ingested data is automatically classified into one or more relevance classes. Further, numerous analytics are performed on the classified data to generate business intelligence metrics that may be presented on an access device operated by a user.

Systems and methods for automatically matching in real-time an advertisement with a video desired to be viewed by a user are provided. A database is created that stores one or more attributes (e.g., visual metadata relating to objects, faces, scene classifications, pornography detection, scene segmentation, production quality, fingerprinting) associated with a plurality of videos. Supervised machine learning can be used to create signatures that uniquely identify particular attributes of interest, which can then be used to generate the attributes associated with the plurality of videos. When a user requests to view an on-line video having associated with it an advertisement, an advertisement can be selected for display with the video based on matching an advertiser's requirements or campaign parameters with the stored attributes associated with the requested video, with the user's information, or a combination thereof. The displayed advertisement can function as a hyperlink that allows a user to select to receive additional information about the advertisement. The performance or effectiveness of the selected advertisements can be measured and recorded.