Ebook Supplemental Content Filtering via Metadata and Keywords

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Solution Overview

Problem

Ebook readers face difficulties in finding relevant and interesting supplemental content related to their reading material, as existing systems lack mechanisms to seamlessly link electronic book text with other related content, leading to voluminous and often irrelevant search results.

Innovation Solution

A media guidance application that allows users to select portions of text in ebooks, parse keywords, and generate queries using ebook metadata, title, and chapter information to retrieve relevant supplemental content from databases, filtering results based on user preferences and context, and enabling sharing of content across devices.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Quantity of substance

If a user performs a search for supplemental content related to ebook text, then the user can find additional content, but the search results are voluminous and often irrelevant

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvevolume of search resultsVSAvoidrelevance of search results
Core Design Contradiction:
Quantity of substanceVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs preliminary actions by extracting keywords from the ebook text before the user searches, and pre-filters potential supplemental content based on these keywords. This preliminary processing reduces the search space and ensures that only relevant content is retrieved, solving the contradiction between result volume and relevance.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The system introduces an intermediary filtering mechanism that sits between the user's search query and the supplemental content database. This intermediary layer applies multiple filters (keyword matching, metadata filtering, user profile filtering) to refine the search results, ensuring that voluminous results are transformed into a manageable, relevant subset.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

2Reliability

If the system filters search results using multiple criteria, then the relevance of supplemental content improves, but the system complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improverelevance of supplemental contentVSAvoidsystem complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The filtering system is segmented into multiple independent filter modules, each handling a specific filtering criterion (keyword filtering, metadata filtering, user profile filtering). This segmentation allows the complex filtering task to be divided into manageable, independent components that can be applied sequentially, reducing the perceived system complexity while maintaining high relevance.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The filtering system is designed as a universal multi-functional framework that can apply different filtering criteria based on the situation. The same filtering infrastructure handles keyword-based filtering, metadata-based filtering, and user-profile-based filtering, avoiding the need for separate complex systems for each filtering type.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

3Ease of operation

If the system provides multiple ways to access supplemental content (text selection, metadata links, on-page options), then the ease of operation improves, but the device complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveease of accessing supplemental contentVSAvoidinterface complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
Ease of operationVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The system implements self-service by automatically detecting keywords in the ebook text and generating supplemental content links without requiring manual user configuration. The system serves itself by extracting metadata and automatically creating the filtering criteria, reducing the operational burden on users while maintaining multiple access points.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #25Self-service

Solution Approach 2:

Multiple access methods (text selection, metadata links, on-page options) are merged into a unified supplemental content delivery system. Rather than maintaining separate independent systems for each access method, the patent combines them into a single integrated framework that handles all access points through a common filtering and retrieval mechanism, reducing overall system complexity.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #5Merging (Combining)

Data Source

PatentEP4187406A1Systems and methods for filtering supplemental content for an electronic book
Publication Date: 2023.05.31 ADEIA GUIDES INC
  • EP4187406A1 patent drawingFigure 1~2
  • EP4187406A1 patent drawingFigure 3~4
  • EP4187406A1 patent drawingFigure 5~6

AI summary

Supplemental content related to an electronic book may be obtained by creating a search query using a keyword in selected text of the electronic book. The results of the search may be filtered to refine the result list using details about the electronic book obtained from a manifest file for the electronic book, including the location of the selected text.