Summarization apparatus and method

An apparatus for summarizing a document in support of selection, access, edition, and management of the document readable by a computer, comprising:

• a summary readability improvement unit improving readability of a summary by distinguishing user known information already known to a user, and/or information known through an access log regarded as already known to a user based on a document previously presented to the user when a summary is generated, from other information than these two types of information, and by selecting an important portion in a document to be summarized;
• and
• a summary generation unit generating the summary of the document to be summarized based on a selection result from said summary readability improvement unit.

A method for summarizing a document in support of selection, access, edition, and management of the document readable by a computer, comprising:

• extracting a portion related to two types of focused information in a document to be summarized based on the two types of focused information, that is, user-focused information as information focused by a user who uses a summary, and author-focused information as information emphasized by an author of the document to be summarized;
• and
• generating the summary of the document to be summarized based on an extraction result of a portion related to the two types of focused information.

A method for summarizing a document in support of selection, access, edition, and management of the document readable by a computer, comprising:

• distinguishing user known information already known to a user, and/or information known through an access log regarded as already known to a user based on a document previously presented to the user when a summary is generated, from other information than these two types of information, and selecting an important portion in a document to be summarized;
• and
• generating the summary of the document to be summarized based on a selection result of the important portion.

A computer-readable storage medium storing a program used to direct a computer to perform, in summarizing a document in support of selection, access, edition, and management of the document readable by a computer, the following:

• extracting a portion related to two types of focused information in a document to be summarized based on the two types of focused information, that is, user-focused information as information focused by a user who uses a summary, and author-focused information as information emphasized by an author of the document to be summarized;
• and
• generating the summary of the document to be summarized based on an extraction result of a portion related to the two types of focused information.

A computer-readable storage medium storing a program used to direct a computer to perform, in summarizing a document in support of selection, access, edition, and management of the document readable by a computer, the following:

• distinguishing user known information already known to a user, and/or information known through an access log regarded as already known to a user based on a document previously presented to the user when a summary is generated, from other information than these two types of information, and selecting an important portion in a document to be summarized;
• and
• generating the summary of the document to be summarized based on a selection result of the important portion.

An apparatus for summarizing a document in support of selection, access, edition, and management of the document readable by a computer, comprising:

• focused information relevant portion extraction means for extracting a portion related to two types of focused information in a document to be summarized based on the two types of focused information comprising user-focused information as information focused by a user who uses a summary, and author-focused information as information emphasized by an author of the document to be summarized;
• and
• summary generation means for generating the summary of the document to be summarized based on an extraction result from said focused information relevant portion extraction means.

An apparatus for summarizing a document in support of selection, access, edition, and management of the document readable by a computer, comprising:

• summary readability improvement means for improving readability of a summary by distinguishing user known information already known to a user, and/or information known through an access log regarded as already known to a user based on a document previously presented to the user when a summary is generated, from other information than these two types of information, and by selecting an important portion in a document to be summarized;
• and
• summary generation means for generating the summary of the document to be summarized based on a selection result from said summary readability improvement means.