Abstract:
Web content is predominantly text and graphics oriented needing visual attention. The majority of web sites publish their content catering to such interactive consumption model. As an alternative to the interactive consumption, one can think of a minimally interactive passive mode of consumption where the user can listen to text spoken as audio. The proposed invention—is about multi-tier content adaptation and publishing architecture transforming existing content into a form amenable to minimally interactive usage and wider reach. The adaption of content would benefit both the publishers and the consumers. The invention outlines a multi-tier framework that adapts the content through various optional building blocks. The multiple tiers include, content adaption, augmentation and transformation into passive and minimally interactive audio form through a plurality of techniques. A consumer friendly content presentation enables the client to access this information in a seamless manner.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0001]    The vastness of web is quite evident. The web content is ever-changing with more content being added every second. On the consumer front, with the web impacting almost every facet of life, the desire to consume more content is also going up. Advances in communication technology, mobile and portable smart devices enable the user to consume information on the move. Keeping up with all this essential and not so essential information is a daunting and time consuming task for producers and consumers. 
         [0002]    Web content is predominantly text and graphics oriented needing visual attention. The majority of web sites publish their content catering to such interactive consumption model. As an alternative to the interactive consumption, one can think of a minimally interactive passive mode of consumption where the user can listen to text spoken as audio. Such a form of consumption comes handy in several day-day situations where listening to the content itself is secondary to another primary task. Examples include listening while: driving, exercising, leisure walks, cooking etc. The proliferation of portable devices makes such a passive consumption all the more easier and handy. However, the amount of content available for such passive consumption is very limited. 
         [0003]    To summarize, the problem is two sided. On one side publishers have tuned content for a highly interactive model that is not suitable for passive consumption. On the other side is the user community, with an ever increasing need to catch up with the information explosion in new smart and time efficient manner. 
         [0004]    The present invention is in the field of digital content adaptation. More particularly the invention is about multi-tier content adaptation and publishing architecture transforming existing content into a form amenable to minimally interactive usage and wider reach. The adaption of content would benefit both the publishers and the consumers. 
         [0005]    Podcasts address this issue to some extent. However, podcast publishing incurs high production, storage costs and high bandwidth over the network. Today podcasts lack widespread adaptability for the same reasons. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0006]    The current invention relates to a content adaptation and distribution system with the following features:
       A publisher friendly model enabling wider audience reach to publisher&#39;s content with support for subscription, ad-revenues, copyrights preservation and a feedback mechanism.   Content adaptation—processing the original published content into a form amenable for the end-consumption by applying a plurality of techniques comprising of: categorization summarization, translation, annotation, markup, tagging.   Content Augmentation—augmenting the content, in a hierarchical fashion at multiple stages, with a plurality of auxiliary content like: promotions, advertisements (text, textual advertisements converted to audio as well as other multi-media advertisements) and related content.   Content transformation—transforming the main and auxiliary content into passive &amp; minimally interactive audio form.   Consumer friendly content presentation—Enables client device to consume the adapted, augmented and transformed content from a variety of sources in a seamless manner.       
 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS 
         [0012]      FIG. 1  is the high level system architecture diagram of the present invention. 
           [0013]      FIG. 2  is the Content Routing and Directory Server—CoRDS 
           [0014]      FIG. 3  is the Text to Speech Module (TSM) 
           [0015]      FIG. 4  is the Content Adaptation &amp; Transformation Server CATS 
           [0016]      FIG. 5  is the Content Consuming Client Device (CCCD) and Client Device Agent (CDA) 
           [0017]      FIG. 6  is an alternative “application service provider” deployment scenario 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     Overall Architecture &amp; Data Flow 
       [0018]      FIG. 1  shows the high level system architecture to adapt and publish existing digital content for passive consumption on mobile, portable and other devices. The system consists of one or more content sources  10  from one or more publishers, and a Content Adaptation and Transformation Server(CATS)  400  associated with each publisher, a Content Routing and Directory Server (CoRDS)  200  and Content Consuming Client Devices (CCCD)  500 . The CCCD  500  has a resident Client Device Agent (CDA)  515 . 
         [0019]    Illustrated further in  FIG. 1  the CATS  400  is responsible for adapting the content, serving the meta data about the adapted content to CoRDS  200  and serving adapted content to the end clients (CCCD)  500 . The CoRDS  200  maintains the meta-data of the adapted content. It acts as a directory server that tracks the relevancy of the adapted content from the client&#39;s point of view, as well as its location. The resident CDA  515  on CCCD  500  initiates a request for adapted content of a certain categories to the CoRDS  200 . The capabilities and preferences of the client device (CCCD)  500  are tracked by the CoRDS  200  system. The CoRDS  200  compiles relevant content based on the consumption history, preferences set by the client and a host of other access criteria and responds with a Compiled Content Information List (CCIL) for the requested categories of content. Using the CCIL, the CDA  515  makes subsequent requests to CATS  400  to fetch the actual adapted content. 
         [0020]    As illustrated further in  FIG. 1 , a publisher&#39;s content source  10  is the provider of the content that needs to be transformed for passive consumption. The content source  10  can be a website or a blogging site and any other form of information with a well defined interface offering content. The content CT fetched from the source could be any textual content such as a blog, a news article, a story, textual advertisements or any multimedia content such as audio or video or graphical images, multimedia advertisements or data in any encoded or binary forms. The CATS  400  fetches the content CT from the content source  10  using either a well known interface such as HTTP or any publisher defined proprietary interface. The content updates are initiated either by the CATS  400  or by the source  10 . The CATS  400  processes the content, transforms the content for passive usage and stores the metadata (MD) describing the transformed content such as URLs, creation time, markers for content augmentation etc., into a database. The CATS  400  updates the CoRDS  200  with the meta-data of the adapted content. The meta-data synchronization between the CoRDS  200  and the CATS  400  is bi-directional in nature where the synchronization can be initiated by either the CATS  400  or the CoRDS  200  or both. The CATS  400  has an option to control access to the content by enforcing user authentication and authorization. The user authentication and authorization can be enforced either internally within the CATS or by communicating with an external authentication engine  20 . The CATS  400  periodically synchronizes with the CoRDS  200  to get accounting, auditing and control information such as usage, listening and advertisement statistics. The CATS  400  also receives similar audit accounting and control information from the client device agent (CDA)  515 . The CATS  400  provides the usage, stats, accounting and tracking information back to the publisher audit entity  30 . 
         [0021]    Illustrated in  FIG. 1 , The CoRDS  200  is a central repository of meta-data that describes the transformed content available from various publishers. It processes and organizes the content meta-data using factors like categories, relevancy. The CoRDS  200  interfaces with an auxiliary data feeder  40  to get auxiliary data that is of interest to an end-consumer such as deals, traffic, advertisements etc. The CoRDS  200  acts as an intelligent gateway between the adapted content and the users—It enables client devices  500  to fetch the compiled content information lists (CCIL) based on relevancy, categories etc. The capabilities and preferences of the client device (CCCD)  500  are tracked by the CoRDS  200  system. The CoRDS  200  receives content requests from client device agent CDA  515  and responds with a Compiled Content Information List (CCIL) for the requested categories of content and auxiliary data. The communication between the client device agent (CDA)  515  and the CoRDS  200  can be either a push model or a pull model. In the push model, the CoRDS  200  detects the availability of updated content and notifies the CDA  515 . In the pull model the CoRDS  200  receives a request from the CDA  515  and responds back with the information requested. The CoRDS  200  collects statistics such as usage, accounting and auditing information from the CDA  515 . The CoRDS  200  also synchronizes such auditing information back to the related publisher&#39;s CATS  400 . The CoRDS  200  can also provide content consumption trends to other third parties  50  interested in such information. 
         [0022]    As shown in  FIG. 1 , the content consuming client device (CCCD)  500  facilitates an end user to consume the content. The nature and capabilities of these devices vary—for e.g. it could be a portable hand held smart device, a personal laptop, a general purpose computer or a specialized piece of hardware with capabilities for the adapted content usage as mentioned in this application. The client device agent (CDA)  515 , resident on the client device (CCCD)  500  will adjust and utilize such capabilities to enable the content consumption. The client device agent  515  will contact the CoRDS  200  to get a compiled content information list (CCIL). The CDA  515  makes use of the CCIL, user preferences, other CCCD  500  based capabilities and other navigational input from the user to contact the appropriate CATS  400  for fetching the actual adapted content. The CATS  400  will respond back with the requested adapted content. The client device agent (CDA)  515 , utilizing the device capabilities such as the OS and the hardware, plays the content for user consumption. The CDA  515  offers user friendly interface for interactive browsing and browse-free listening modes. 
         [0023]    Content augmentation with auxiliary content could happen hierarchically at the multiple stages of the system—the main content originator ‘the publisher’, the ‘content aggregator and organizer’ and the end content consuming client. The system provides flexibility to honor or override the auxiliary content based on the underlying contractual arrangements. 
       Content Routing and Directory Server—CoRDS  200   
       [0024]      FIG. 2  depicts the functional blocks of the Content Routing and Directory Server—CoRDS  200 . The CoRDS  200  maintains the metadata about the available adapted content. It does not necessarily host any content. However it tracks the content urls from the configured/listed sources and their relevancy to a user. 
         [0025]    The CoRDS  200  has a Metadata Synchronization Module (MSM)  205  that synchronizes periodically with the CATS  400  to refresh the main and auxiliary content timestamps, urls, categories, advertisement categories etc. It receives request for content from the CDA  515  and processes requests through the User Request Processor (URP)  210 . The CoRDS  200  has Directory Service  215  that maps available sources to given content categories.  220  is a Relevancy Processor (RP) responsible for applying the relevancy rules to serve applicable content from the set of available adapted content. Some example relevancy rules are: age of the content, client device capabilities, user preferences for information sources, preferences for relevant references and other auxiliary content.  225  is an Auxiliary Content and CCIL generator that acts as a mixer for the content. The main content is interleaved with the auxiliary content like advertisements (text, graphics or multimedia), references and other promotional material. Various user preferences, location identifiers, demographic information could be used in serving the relevant auxiliary content. The final CCIL is then delivered as a response to the request from CDA  515 . The CoRDS  200  has a user preferences and a content metadata database (UCMDB)  230 . The database stores the user preferences with regards to the content, user device capabilities, content consumption history etc. for each user. The content metadata like original timestamps, content markers for auxiliary content insertion, relevant references etc are also stored in different tables of the database. 
         [0000]    The user related statistics are aggregated by the (USG)  235 . 
         [0026]      240  is a user data mining module (UDM) that is responsible for exporting user content usage history to the content publishers. 
         [0027]      245  is an Advertisement Usage Reconciliation Module (AURM) that is responsible for reconciling advertisement statistics back to the advertisement campaigners. 
       Text to Speech Module—TSM  300   
       [0028]      FIG. 3  shows the functional blocks of a Text to Speech Module (TSM)  300 . The TSM  300  facilitates the conversion of main and any auxiliary textual content into audio form. This enables the end user to listen to the audio-transformed content with minimal interaction as compared to reading the original form. The TSM has Text to Speech Generator (TSG) that uses a host of language processing and speech synthesizing techniques to generate the audio wave form. There is an optional audio encoding module  310  that is responsible for digital encoding and compression of the audio into one or more of the supported codec formats like mp3, AAC etc. The TSM  300  can be located in one or more places in the system. If the client device has sufficient processing power, it is preferred to place TSM  300  in the client device (CCCD  500 ). This would eliminate the storage and transmission requirements of the audio over the network. In such a scenario  310  would be completely optional. 
       Content Adaptation and Transformation Server—CATS  400   
       [0029]      FIG. 4  shows the functional blocks of a Content Adaptation and Transformation Server (CATS)  400 . The CATS  400  is responsible for adapting the content into a form suitable for minimally interactive consumption. The CATS  400  has Preprocessing and Categorization Module (CM)  405 . CM is responsible for processing the published content from contents sources  10  (typically from websites and blogs) and categorizes it into various categories like news, sports, finance news etc. 
         [0030]    The content is then transformed (adapted) by the Content Adapter (CA)  410 . Transformations in this layer include summarization of the content into a shorter form (less words), translating from one language to another etc. 
         [0031]      415  is a Content Augmentation Processor (CAP). CAP  415  takes the adapted content generated by  410  and identifies locations where the auxiliary content can be inserted. Examples of auxiliary content include: advertisements (textual, graphical, multi-media . . . ), promotional material, traffic reports etc. The output of CAP  415  is the final adapted content with markers for additional content insertion. The actual insertion could also happen at other stages in the system. CoRDS  200  and CDA  515  are the potential places where additional auxiliary content could be inserted. This would enable the system to target the users better with relevant auxiliary information. 
         [0032]    The Text to Speech Module (TSM)  300  is an optional module in CATS  400 . It enables the CATS  400  to convert the text to audio and serve the audio directly to requestors. 
         [0033]      420  is the content database. The adapted content with augmentation markers is stored here. If the optional TSM  300  is present the generated audio is also stored in the database.  425  is the content serving module (CSM). The CSM  425  handles requests for content from CDA  515  and request for content meta-data (MD) from CoRDS  200  and serves the requested information. The CSM  425  accesses the content to be served from the content database  420 . The CSM  425  has an option to authenticate and authorize access to the content by interfacing with an authentication and authorization module (AAM)  430 . The AAM  430  can be implemented completely internal to the CATS  400  or it can communicate with an external authentication mechanism  20 . 
         [0034]      435  is an Audit and Statistics Module (ASM). The ASM  435  keeps track of the statistics and audit information such as what content is served, how many accesses , and who accessed, what auxiliary content (such as advertisements etc.) is served and makes this information available to any publisher audit entity  30 . 
       Content Consuming Client Device—CCCD  500   
       [0035]      FIG. 5  is a representation of the Content Consuming Client Device (CCCD). The key component of the CCCD  500  is the Client Device Agent (CDA)  515 . The content processing and presentation capabilities of the client devices may vary widely. The CDA inside the Client Device is responsible to choose the appropriate capabilities and offer optimal user experience of the adapted content. 
         [0036]      505  is a key software component responsible for making requests to the CATS  400  and the CoRDS  200 . It is capable of inserting additional content based on context and relevancy such as location based traffic and weather reports, calendar notifications etc. It offers the user interface functionality to present the final content. 
         [0037]      510  is the base Operating System layer. It provides the necessary services for connectivity, task and application management. Examples of this could include: iOS for iPhone, Android or any other platform operating system. 
         [0038]      300  is an optional module in the Client Device Agent. It is preferable to have the Text to Speech Module inside the CDA if the CCCD  500  is capable of performing the task. This is very effective in saving the network bandwidth requirements for both client (CCCD  500 ) and the server (CATS  400 ). 
       Alternative Deployment Scenarios 
       [0039]      FIG. 6  shows an example deployment variation of the same system architecture as shown in  FIG. 1 . The deployment scenario has the same components as in  FIG. 1  and the deployment variation is purely a matter of logistics on part of the players involved. When it is not feasible to have a CATS  400  at a publisher&#39;s site, it is possible to have a scenario where an “application service provider” more specifically a “content-service-provider” can host the CATS  400  server along side with the CoRDS  200 . Such “content-service-providers” typically serve several publishers. The architecture and the data flow and the functional components remain the same as explained earlier in the context of  FIGS. 1-5 . 
         [0040]    It is possible that the CoRDS  200  and CATS  400  are physically either co-located or not co-located, but they are managed and co-hosted typically by the same “content-service-provider”. It is also possible that there can be “content-service-providers” that only specialize in hosting CATS  400  working with some other “content-service-provider” hosting the CoRDS  200  server. Whatever the business logistics drive at, the underlying functional components and the data flow remain the same as in described in  FIGS. 1-5 . 
         [0041]    Also from a scalability perspective and fault tolerance there could be more than one instance of the CATS  400  and CoRDS  200  components distributing the load in terms of publishers as well as clients but the overall system data flow and functional distribution remains the same as described in  FIG. 1-5 .