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MANUALS 1M HYPERLINKS MANUALS

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1. a run time media engine means connected to said hyper links wherein said run time media engine means com prises event handler means and script interpreter means
2. media types provide a way of labeling objects in a content type media For example a lt TITLE gt tag in a text file indicates that the following text is in a title The advantage 10 15 20 25 30 35 45 55 65 6 of tags is that they can provide a structure for the content Tag specification defines allowable tags for a content type media For content type TEXT SGML the tags defined in an SGML DTD can be directly used in a LINK specification because the containment relationships between the tags and the match strings are clearly defined If tags are to be used in other content type media then the tags must be defined The requirement is that a tag program shall be provided to determine if a match string is contained within a tag or directly contained within a tag i c to provide interpretation of the notation match string lt tagname gt and match string lt tagname gt in the LINK gt specifica tions for this content type The following is an example of linking component related information LINK REFER Inspect Component TEXT SGML manual doc x lt COMP gt GRAPHIC CGM SurveyOfComponent cgm 9ox ENTIRE TEXT SGML manual doc SELF lt DocHeader gt BEFORE DocNum OUTSIDE 3 6 x 9423 gt This example demonstrates the use of multiple destination points which need to be accessed simultaneously The source is a Component number It is know
3. 2 A system for automatic hyperlinking on multimedia by compiling link specifications as claimed in claim 1 wherein said link specification described by specification lan guage and based on said extensible AIU representation compiled by said link generator uniformly describes needed hyperlinks on different content type media for required information access and said link generator systematically generates said hyperlinks 3 A system for automatic hyperlinking on multimedia by compiling link specifications as claimed in claim 1 wherein said link specification specifies extensible anchorable information units on non textual media by using STRING gt a mechanism for describing contents of new media types TAG gt a mechanism for describing structures of said contents and CONTEXT a mechanism for describing relationships of said structures 4 A method for automatic hyperlinking on multimedia by compiling link specifications comprising the steps of receiving a link specification based on an Anchorable Information Units ATU representation receiving a multimedia manual generating hyperlinks verifying said links utilizing a run time media engine to include user interac tion and inserting said hyperlinks into said manual to provide a hyperlinked manual wherein generating hyperlinks comprises the step of automatically generating said hyperlinks among textual and non textual media 5 A method f
4. from a given string in the pattern For example suppose we have a string program that can identify an area of interest based on its relationship to some text in a CGM vector based graphics file This area can be a surrounding area of the text together with an area pointed to by a graphical arrow from the text Then the program and the following specification can be used STRING x GRAPHIC CGM textual area of interest to specify a match string that can indicate that area inside of a graphics file If a wire trace program can be provided for schematic drawings we can specify an allow able string pattern c p standing for ATUs of wire trace along any component c and its pin p We can use STRING c p GRAPHIC CGM wire trace gt to specify that a certain wire should be traced This mechanism can incrementally add the capability of information access on non textual media based on available identification pro grams to build AIUs for hyperlinks Suppose that both images and 3D CAD models for a particular complex piece of equipment exist Further sup pose there is a string program called visible parts that can overlay the 3D CAD models on the image and identify the visible parts in the image Then it is possible to associate an area on the image with its part name and specify a part in an image as an AIU by lt STRING x IMAGE TIFF visible parts gt Tags a mechanism for describing structure of contents of new
5. in node content Automatic link generation is formalized as measuring vector similarity among nodes Even for text documents the main disadvantage to these systems is that users have no control over the link generation procedure These systems cannot adapt to different usages of links for information access and to different media The Hypermedia Template method developed at the IRIS Institute uses templates to help users generate links Tem plates are sets of pre linked documents The method pro vides incremental improvements to manually coded linking methods SmarText by Lotus Big Science is a system that is used to generate hypertext tables of contents automated keyword index generation and cross reference link genera tion based on keywords and paragraph analysis Hyper TRANS by Texas Instrument is a system that translates the input documents into nodes Links among the nodes are automatically generated based on references to chapters figures etc HieNet by Passage Systems Inc is a user centered approach to link generation based on Link Profiles Similarity measures are used to link relevant information HYTEA by the Esprit project has produced a Hypermedia Design Model This model supports automatic derivation of structural and perspective links based on the structure of the model It is a text oriented method and has limitations in generating application specific links which are required for accessing information in documents
6. that hyperlinks can be generated automatically The example above specifies a REFER link which links entries in a Table of Documents to the starting point of the appropriate document The variable 96x is used to match each source that is found with the appropriate destination The context tag which follows is used to narrow down the search and to help insure that the correct infor mation is found The destination specification uses the keyword SELF to specify that the context tag is actually the destination CHAIN cross references consist of more than one cross reference Usually the intermediate reference is in a table For instance suppose it is desirable to link a component number with the appropriate part list document for that component Also suppose that the component numbers are listed in a table along with the part list document number to 5 794 257 5 refer to A chain link is needed to go from the component number in the text to the component number in the table to the part list document number in the table to the actual part list document OUTLINE cross references arise from the structure of the service manuals Users may need a brief overview of struc tural information such as a table of contents list of figures list of tables list of citations list of warnings list of repair steps list of help notes etc Access to a table or figure could be gained by clicking on a title in the overview Help information or e
7. NTEXT SEARCH THE MANUALS FOR LOCATING THE PLACES WHICH SATISFY THE SOURCE PATTERNS UNDER THE SOURCE CONTEXT SEARCH THE MANUALS FOR LOCATING THE PLACES WHICH SATISFY THE INSTANTIALIZED DESTINATION PATTERN UNDER ITS CONTEXT BY BINDING VARIABLES FOUND IN SOURCES COLLECT ALL SOURCES AND CORRESPONDING DESTINATIONS FOR DESCRIBING HYPERLINKS IN MANUAL POOL U S Patent Aug 11 1998 Sheet 4 of 4 5 794 257 FIG 5 LINKS FROM MANUAL POOL MARK THE VERIFICATION CHOICES BY LINK TYPE LINK NAME OR LINK STATEMENTS COLLECT ALL LINK INSTANCES WHICH SATISFY THE VERIFICATION SELECTION GET ONE LINK FROM THE COLLECTION INCLUDE ADDITIONAL LING MARK THE CURRENT LINK IN THE FORM SOURCE DESTINATION FOR EXCLUSION COLLECT NEW LINKS IN THE FORM SOURCE DESTINATION FOR INCLUSION AND INSERT INTO MANUAL 5 794 257 1 AUTOMATIC HYPERLINKING ON MULTIMEDIA BY COMPILING LINK SPECIFICATIONS FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to the creation of hyper linked multimedia and more particularly to automatic hyper linked technology based on formal specifications DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART Most approaches to automatic link generation are for pre fixed structural links e g hypertext table of contents and index links on text oriented documents The more advanced systems are based on content representation of text nodes as a vector derived from the terms
8. OUTLINE List of Phone Help Qverview All Help Phone Numbers SYSTEM VIEW TOC Phone Help menu item TEXT SGML manual doc Telephon x lt ManualSet gt gt lt LINK OUTLINE List of Figures Overview All Figures SYSTEM VIEW TOC Figure Overview lt menu item gt TEXT SGML manual doc SELF lt Title gt INSIDE lt Figure gt gt lt LINK OUTLINE List of Tables Overview All Tables SYSTEM VIEW TOC Table Overview lt menu item gt TEXT SGML manual doc SELF lt Title gt INSIDE lt Table gt gt We claim 1 Asystem for automatic hyperlinking on multimedia by compiling link specifications comprising an extensible Anchorable Information Units ATU repre sentation for describing multimedia content a link specification based on said extensible AIU repre sentation an auto linker for receiving said link specification and a multimedia manual and for providing hyperlinks and a run time media engine connected to said hyperlinks wherein said auto linker comprises a link generator for providing said hyperlinks a link verifier for checking and modifying said hyper links and a hyperlink buffer for correlating said link generator with said link verifier wherein 5 794 257 9 said link generator incrementally and automatically generates said hyperlinks among textual and non textual media based on said extensible AIU repre sentation
9. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is an automatic hyperlinking sys tem based on formal specifications to describe the patterns of the source and destination points of connections for hotspots and links When source and destination points are connected with hyperlinks access to the connected information is facilitated Generally a mouse is used to click on a hotspot source to provide instant access to the destination by following the link By compiling hotspot and link specifications hyperlinks can be generated auto matically for multimedia data in a uniform and consistent manner This technology can be utilized to create hyperlinked multimedia manuals which can provide efficient information access The electronic manuals and the link specification are inputted into an auto linker which includes a link generator a link verifier and a hyperlink buffer The link generator provides the links and the link verifier is used to check and modify the links The output of the auto linker are hyper links A run time media engine comprising an event handler and a script interpreter is utilized to handle user interaction At run time the media engine responds to the mouse clicks on hotspot areas in the hyperlinked manuals Through the 10 15 35 45 55 2 interaction of the hyperlinks from the auto linker and the run time media engine the hyperlinked manuals are produced The link specification described
10. United States Patent ro Liu et al 54 75 73 21 22 51 52 58 56 ELECTRONIC MANUALS 5297249 AUTOMATIC HYPERLINKING ON MULTIMEDIA BY COMPILING LINK SPECIFICATIONS Inventors Peiya Liu East Brunswick N J Kenneth Hampel Yardley Pa Arding Hsu Kendall Park N J Assignee Siemens Corporate Research Inc Princeton N J Appl No 503 074 Filed Jul 14 1995 Int CL ceteri RHET G06F 17 30 U S CL EE 797 501 Field of Search 395 762 774 395 356 357 613 615 707 501 513 102 104 345 356 357 References Cited U S PATENT DOCUMENTS 3 1994 Bernstein et al 395 356 LINK SPECIFICATION BASED ON AIU REP LINK VERIFIER 22 L IK GENERATOR EVENT HANDLER US005794257A 11 Patent Number 5 794 257 45 Date of Patent Aug 11 1998 5 404 534 4 1995 Foss etal 395 683 5430872 7 1995 Dahod et al wees 395 615 5 537 546 7 1996 Sauter 395 200 01 5 557 722 9 1996 DeRose et al 395 774 5 603 025 2 1997 Tabb et al seve 395 602 5 608 900 3 1997 Dockter et al 395 613 5 623 679 4 1997 Rivette et al 395 773 5 634 062 5 1997 Shimizu et al 707 501 Primary Examiner Joseph R Burwell Attorney Agent or Firm Donald B Paschburg 57 ABSTRACT A link specification and an electronic manual is provided to an auto linker which
11. ag WITH attribute constraints context tag D JOUTSIDE context tag 1 context tag D JINSIDE context tag context tag AFTER context tag context tag BEFORE context tag context tag AROUND context tag attribute constraints attributename NULL attributename gt attributevalue attributename attributevalue attributename gt attributevalue attributename lt attributevalue attributename lt attributevalue attribute constraints The link types REFER CHAIN OUTLINE and COM PUTE are defined as follows REFER cross references explicitly or implicitly refer to other information and are the most common in service manuals See table refer to figure as shown in chapter and see section are all examples of explicit cross references that are often found in service manuals Other information pertaining to tools materials or procedures can be linked using REFER cross references The following is an example of hyperlinks from document numbers in a table of documents to documents lt LINK REFER Go to Starting Page Access to Documents from Table of Documents TEXT SGML manual doc 96x lt ENTRY gt WITH colname 2 INSIDE lt Table gt OUTSIDE lt Title gt OUTSIDE Table of Documents TEXT SGML manual doc SELF lt DocHeader gt BEFORE DocNum OUTSIDE x gt The language formally described above is used to specify enough information so
12. al media and thus there are no standard ways to represent AIUs for non textual media Without recoding the link generator the present invention provides a solution to specify generate AIUs on a variety of media and formats in an extensive manner based on the best identification pro grams that are available Currently in the prior art hyper links are created manually or in a restrictive manner on texts It is not intended that the present invention be limited to the software arrangement or operational procedures shown disclosed This invention includes all of the alterations and 10 15 25 35 45 55 65 8 variations thereto as encompassed within the scope of the claims as follows Examples of Link Specifications follows STRING x GRAPHIC CGM textual area of interests LINK REFER See Figures See Related Figures TEXT SGML manual doc see figure x lt ManualSet gt TEXT SGML manual doc SELF lt Figure gt OUTSIDE Title OUTSIDE figure x gt LINK REFER See Tables See Related Tables TEXT SGML manual doc see figure x lt ManualSet gt TEXT SGML manual doc SELF lt Table gt OUTSTDE Title OUTSIDE table x gt lt LINK REFER See Reference Docs Access to Related Docs for Repair Instructions and Scheds TEXT SGML manual doc x lt ENTRY gt WITH colname 1 INSIDE lt Table gt OUTSIDE Tit
13. by the specification lan guage compiled by the link generator can UNIFORMLY describe the needed hyperlinks on different content type media for required information access The present inven tion can systematically generate the hyperlinks once the needed hyperlinks are adequately specified The mechanism to INCREMENTALLY specify Anchorable Information Units AIUs on non textual media using STRING gt TAG gt AND CONTEXT gt is particularly useful because there is no general solution to identifying objects in non textual media and thus there are no standard ways to represent AIUs for non textual media Without recoding Linker Generator the present invention provides a solution to specify generate ATUs on a variety of media and formats in an extensive manner based on the best identification programs that are available BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG 1 illustrates a high level description of the present invention FIG 2 illustrates the architecture for creating hyperlinked service manuals FIG 3 illustrates information flow of the present inven tion FIG 4 illustrates a flowchart for the linker generator of the present invention FIG 5 illustrates the flow chart for the link verifier and insertion of the present invention DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION FIG 1 illustrates a hyperlinked manual creation process of one embodiment of the present invention A link generator 12 takes the e
14. ed from the collection A decision is then made in decision block 54 as to whether the link is OK If the link is not OK then in block 55 the current link is marked in the form source destination for exclusion and the flow then returns to decision block 52 where a determi nation is made as to whether there are any more links If the link is OK then the link is inserted into a manual and a decision is made in decision block 56 as to whether any additional links should be included If no additional links should be included then the flow returns to decision block 52 If additional links should be included then in block 57 new links in the form source destination are collected for inclusion and inserted into the manual The flow then returns to decision block 52 where a determination is made as to whether there are any more links Tags are defined by lt ELEMENT tag gt in SGML DTDs For example chapters sections tables and figures in SGMI documents are often associated with tags Chapter Section Table and Figure respectively They generally could also have titles which are tagged with chapter title sec tion title table title and figure title tags respectively However tags for non textual information are not defined in SGML documents The present invention will take advan tage of the tagging mechanisms provided by the file format or publishing system in order to locate hotspots sources and destinat
15. hyperlinks A standard run time media engine 25 as is known in the art is now required to handle user interaction A media engine is a run time link interpreter which interprets the hyperlinks and performs proper actions according to their meaning whenever users click the com 5 794 257 3 puter mouse on the hyperlinks in the manuals In other words a media engine responds appropriately to mouse clicks on the hotspot areas in the hyperlinked manuals For example an action could be turning the manual to related pages from one place in the manual A media engine 25 often consists of an event handler a mechanism responds to window events 26 and a script interpreter a program executes those events 27 There are three types of individuals involved with the present invention the developer the builder and the user The developer provides the autolinker The builders provide the link specification with the original manuals and use the autolinker to create hyperlinked multimedia manuals A human builder must possess some knowledge about the manuals The builder uses the specification language of the present invention to specify hotspots and links The speci fication language allows the use of patterns and variables Many links can be automatically created from a single specification Through the interaction of the hyperlinks from the auto linker 21 with the run time media engine 25 the hyperlinked manuals are produced The users benefit f
16. in conjunction with a run time media engine provides hyperlinked manuals The auto linker com prises a link generator for generating links and a link verifier for checking and modifying the links that are generated The run time media engine comprises an event handler and a script interpreter and handles the user interaction Through the interaction of the hyperlinks from the auto linker with the run time media engine the hyperlinked manuals are pro duced 10 Claims 4 Drawing Sheets 21 HYPERLIMKED MANUALS 25 SCRIPT INTERPRETER U S Patent Aug 11 1998 Sheet 1 of 4 5 794 257 FIG 1 LINK SPECIFICATION BASED ON AIU REP ELECTRONIC MANUALS LINK GENERATION LINK EXAMINER T LINK INSERTION DROP LINKS REVISION NEEDED HYPERL INKED MANUALS LINK SPECIFICATION BASED ON ATU R P FIG 2 2 ELECTRONIC HYPERL INKED MANUALS WYPERLIMS ANAS U S Patent Aug 11 1998 Sheet 2 of 4 FIG 3 31 MM DOCUMENT HYPERLINK GENERATOR SOURCE DEST3 SOURCE SOURCES DESI DESTS LINK SPECIFICATION sowe 73 35 32 5 794 257 37 LINK VERIFIER HYPERLINKED MM SERVICE MANUAL U S Patent Aug 11 1998 Sheet 3 of 4 5 794 257 FIG 4 ELECTRONIC MANUAL LINK SPECIFICATION INITIALIZE THE GENERATOR VARIABLES BY s LO Context AND string PARSE THE NEXT LINK STATEMENT FOR GETTING SOURCE AND DESTINATION PATTERNS AND CO
17. ion language including the language syntax will be described as follows The hotspot and link specifi cations are defined as a set of tuples in the following form LINK link type name comments Source Destination Include Exclude gt where link type REFER CHAIN OUTLINE COMPUTE Node content type file pointer anchor point Source Node Destination Node Destination Node Destination Include Source Destination Exclude Source Destination content type TEXT SGML IMAGE TIFF GRAPHIC CGM anchor point match string context tag match string context tag i computational scripts T means match string is directly contained within the context tag Pf means match string is contained within the context tag match string SELF content string 10 15 35 55 65 4 continued regular expression content string strings allowable in TEXT SGML conteni string defined for other content types by STRING context tag lt ENTIRE gt context tag D JOUTSIDE match string content type dependent tag content type dependent context I context name context tag context name content type dependent tag tags allowable in TEXT SGML tags defined for other content types by lt TAG gt content type dependent context contexts in TEXT SGML contexts defined for other content types by CONTEXT veio contexts in TEXT SGML context t
18. ions in service manuals Tags can be used to help specify search for and locate service manual contents in different contexts such as tables headers figures etc If no tagging mechanisms are provided some specifications must be written for user defined tags to get context information from the contents Suppose the entire service manual is stored in plain ASCII text Then it will be necessary to write some code to analyze the text and extract some context information For instance a string of numbers separated by periods followed by a string of all capital letters probably indicates a heading or subheading so that the text can be tagged with a heading or subheading tag Tags are also used in graphics to identify a group of related objects For example a group of line segments could be associated with a house tag The present invention includes two important features The link specification described by the specification lan guage compiled by the link generator can UNIFORMLY describe the needed hyperlinks on different content type media for required information access and the system can systematically generate the hyperlinks once the needed hyperlinks are adequately specified The mechanism to INCREMENTALLY specify Anchorable Information Units AIUs on non textual media using STRING gt TAG gt and CONTEXT gt is particularly useful because there is no general solution to identifying objects in non textu
19. le gt OUTSIDE Reference Docs TEXT SGML manual doc SELF lt DocHeader gt BEFORE lt DocNum gt OUTSIDE x gt lt LINK CHAIN Find Drawing Documents Check Drawings from Component Numbers TEXT SGML manual doc x lt COMP gt TEXT SGML manual doc x CENTRY gt WITH colname 3 INSIDE rowname lt ROW gt INSIDE lt ComponentSurvey gt TEXT SGML manual doc y lt ENTRY gt WITH colname 4 INSIDE rowname TEXT SGML manual doc SELF lt DocHeader gt BEFORE lt DocNum gt OUTSIDE y gt lt LINK CHAIN Find Part List Documents Check Part List Docs from Component Numbers TEXT SGML manual doc x lt COMP gt TEXT SGML manual doc 9ox lt ENTRY gt WITH colname 3 INSIDE rowname lt CROW gt INSIDE lt ComponentSurvey gt TEXT SGML manual doc Soy lt ENTRY gt WITH colname 5 INSIDE rowname TEXT SGML manual doc SELF lt DocHeader gt BEFORE lt DocNum gt OUTSIDE y gt lt LINK OUTLINE Repair Schedules Outlines Overview Repair Instructions and Schedules SYSTEM VIEW TOC Repair Inst amp Schedu lt menu item gt TEXT SGML manual doc SELF lt Title gt INSIDE lt InstHeader gt INSIDE lt RepairInst gt TEXT SGML manual doc SELF lt Title gt INSIDE lt SchedHeader gt INSIDE lt RepairSched gt gt lt LINK
20. lectronic manuals and a link specification as inputs and provides links as an output The link specification is described by the specification language compiled by the link generator 12 A link verifier 13 is used to check and modify the links that are generated Within the link verifier 13 a link examiner 14 generates a profile for examining the links generated by the link generator 12 A decision block 15 is connected to the output of the link examiner 14 to check the results At the decision block 15 several decisions are made If the links are no good the links are dropped If the links need revision the links go through a link revisor 16 and are passed on to a link inserter 17 If the links are acceptable the links go directly from the decision block 15 to the link inserter 17 The output of the link inserter 17 are hyperlinked manuals FIG 2 illustrates the system architecture of one embodi ment of the present invention for creating hyperlinked service manuals An auto linker 21 accepts the electronic manuals and the link specification as inputs and provides hyperlinks as an output Within the auto linker 21 are a link generator 22 a link verifier 23 and a hyperlink buffer 24 As described above the link generator 22 provides the links and the link verifier 23 is used to check and modify the links that are generated The hyperlink buffer 24 correlates the link verifier 23 and the link generator 22 The output of the auto linker 21 are
21. mergency contact information such as names and phone numbers of on call experts should be available at all times Special hot buttons or an overview menu can quickly access this information COMPUTE cross references are used to call external procedures which can compute the destination of a reference based on the context in which the manual is being used For example to retrieve some product information from a database some routines could be called to access and query the database This is important for database information that is changed frequently or for accessing the latest update information For the non TEXT SGML media allowable strings tags and contexts need to be defined for each content type This specification mechanism uses strings to indicate the anchor able information units AIUs or hotspot areas for non textual media The strings can then be used for pattern matching against the match string in the LINK specification for identifying ATUs in non textual media This mechanism provides a method to uniformly specify anchor points i e match string context tag or match string context tag in LINK gt specifications for both textual and non textual media String specification a mechanism for describing contents of new media types defines allowable string patterns which will eventually indicate Anchorable Information Units AIUs in a content type media A string program shall be provided to generate AIUs
22. n that Component num bers are tagged with lt COMP gt in the document The first destination is an overview graphical diagram that contains the Component number With the textual area of interest string program that number and the related area can be highlighted to show the area of interest The second desti nation is the Component document In the specification of the second destination the knowledge about document numbering schemes is taken advantage of Context a mechanism for describing the relationships of the structures of new media types provides a way to specify constraints and relationships among tags For example TITLE Type Figure gt INSIDE CHAPTER shows a constraint Type Figure and a hierarchical relationship lt TITLE gt within a CHAPTER The contexts in content type TEXT SGML such as Inside Outside After Before etc are clearly defined If contexts are to be used in other content type media then the contexts must be defined The requirement is that a context program shall be provided to check the constraints of any legal tags A context tag pro gram provides an interpretation of contexts on allowable tags in the LINK gt specification The flow diagrams for evaluating the specification lan guage to generate links and to verify the generated links are shown in FIGS 4 and 5 In FIG 4 the electronic mail and the link specification are inputted into box 40 where the generator variable
23. nation pattern by binding variables found in sources and collecting all sources and corresponding destinations for describing hyperlinks 8 A method for automatic hyperlinking on multimedia by compiling link specifications as claimed in claim 4 wherein verifying said links comprises the steps of examining said links performing a results check dropping said links if required revising said links if required and forwarding said links for insertion 9 A method for automatic hyperlinking on multimedia by compiling link specifications as claimed in claim 4 wherein verifying said links comprises the steps of inputting said links from a manual pool marking the verification choices by link type link name or link statements collecting all link instances which satisfy verification selection deciding if there are any more links taking one link checking if said link is correct wherein if said link is not correct mark said link for exclusion deciding whether to include additional links collecting new links for inclusion and inserting said new links into said manual 10 A system for automatic hyperlinking on multimedia by compiling link specifications comprising an extensible Anchorable Information Units AIU repre sentation a link specification based on said extensible AIU repre sentation an auto linker for receiving said link specification and a multimedia manual and for providing hyperlinks and
24. or automatic hyperlinking on multimedia by compiling link specifications as claimed in claim 4 wherein generating hyperlinks further comprises the steps of uniformly describing needed hyperlinks compiling specification language obtained from said link specification and systematically generating said hyperlinks 6 A method for automatic hyperlinking on multimedia by compiling link specifications as claimed in claim 5 wherein generating links further comprises the step of specifying extensible anchorable information units on non textual media automatically by using STRING gt a mechanism for describing contents of new media types TAG gt a mechanism for describ ing structures of said contents and CONTEXT gt a mechanism for describing relationships of said structures and without recoding link generator 7 A method for automatic hyperlinking on multimedia by compiling link specifications as claimed in claim 4 wherein generating links comprises the steps of 25 35 45 55 10 initializing generator variables deciding whether there is a next link parsing next link statement for getting source patterns destination patterns source contexts and destination contests searching said manual for locating places which satisfy said source patterns under said source context searching said manual for locating places which satisfy instantialized destination pattern under context of ini tialized desti
25. rom the hyperlinked manuals and can quickly get access to related information by mouse clicking on the hotspot areas at which hyperlinks are associated Many links can be automatically created from a single specification FIG 3 illustrates the information flow The multimedia document 31 can be created by an authoring tool Without an automatic hyperlinking tool any needed hyperlinks must be added manually one at a time The link specification 32 comprising the source 33 link type 34 and destination 35 provides a systematic way to automatically generate needed links Source and destination patterns are used to describe needed links in a uniform manner for free text structured text graphics etc For example Link See Figure x to Figure x gt Both the multimedia document 31 and the link specification 32 are inputted to the hyperlink generator 36 The hyperlink generator 36 searches the service manuals and finds all of the links The link verifier 37 provides facilities for verifying the links before they are inserted in the documents Any undesired links can be deleted and new desired links can be added The results can be recorded for later use The hyperlink generator 36 with the link verifier 37 provide hyperlinks 38 The hyperlinked multimedia service manual 39 is created by inserting the verified links into the multimedia documents The hyperlinked manual 39 can be viewed by using a manual browser The specificat
26. s are initialized At decision block 41 a determination is made as to whether there is a next link If there is not a next link the link generator stops If there is a next link the link statement is parsed in block 42 for getting the source and destination patterns and contexts In block 43 the manuals are searched for locating the places which satisfy the source patterns under the source context In decision block 44 if a place is not found the flow returns to decision block 41 If a place is found the manuals are then searched for locating the places which satisfy the instantial ized destination pattern under its context by binding vari ables found in sources This takes place in block 45 In decision block 46 if a place is not found the flow once again returns to decision block 41 If a place is found in block 47 there is a collection of all sources and corresponding desti nations for describing hyperlinks in a Manual Pool FIG 5 describes the flow chart for the link verifier and insertion Links from the Manual Pool FIG 4 are inputted 5 794 257 7 into block 50 where verification choices by link type link name or link statements are marked All link instances which satisfy the verification selection are collected in block 51 At decision block 52 a determination is made as to whether there are any more links If there are no more links the link verification stops If there are more links in block 53 one link is obtain

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