U.S. patent application number 12/795998 was filed with the patent office on 2011-02-17 for poetry screen saver.
This patent application is currently assigned to Kurzweil CyberArt Technologies, Inc.. Invention is credited to John A. Keklak, Raymond Kurzweil.
Application Number | 20110041103 12/795998 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 38473371 |
Filed Date | 2011-02-17 |
United States Patent
Application |
20110041103 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Kurzweil; Raymond ; et
al. |
February 17, 2011 |
Poetry Screen Saver
Abstract
A computer poetry screen saver including loading an author
analysis model, randomly selecting a seed word from the author
analysis model, completing a poem following the seed word and
displaying the poem on an output device.
Inventors: |
Kurzweil; Raymond; (Newton,
MA) ; Keklak; John A.; (Sudbury, MA) |
Correspondence
Address: |
FISH & RICHARDSON P.C. (BO)
P.O. BOX 1022
MINNEAPOLIS
MN
55440-1022
US
|
Assignee: |
Kurzweil CyberArt Technologies,
Inc.
|
Family ID: |
38473371 |
Appl. No.: |
12/795998 |
Filed: |
June 8, 2010 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
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11853454 |
Sep 11, 2007 |
7735026 |
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12795998 |
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09703828 |
Nov 1, 2000 |
7269802 |
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11853454 |
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60162882 |
Nov 1, 1999 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
715/867 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06F 40/56 20200101 |
Class at
Publication: |
715/867 |
International
Class: |
G06F 3/048 20060101
G06F003/048 |
Claims
1. A computer-implemented poetry screen saver, comprising: loading
an author analysis model; randomly selecting a seed word from the
author analysis model; completing a poem following the seed word;
and displaying the poem on an output device.
2. The computer-implemented poet screen saver of claim 1 wherein
the output device is a display device.
3. An automatic composition system comprising: a central processing
unit; a random access memory; a display unit; and means for
automatically composing text that appears on the display unit
during a screen saver mode.
4. The system of claim 3 wherein the text is poetry.
Description
CLAIM OF PRIORITY
[0001] This application claims priority under 35 USC .sctn.119(e)
to U.S. Patent Application Ser. No. 60/162,882, filed on Nov. 1,
1999, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by
reference.
BACKGROUND
[0002] This invention relates to generating poetry from a
computer.
[0003] A computer may be used to generate text, such as poetry, to
an output device and/or storage device. The displayed text may be
in response to a user input or via an automatic composition
process. Devices for generating poetry via a computer have been
proposed which involve set slot grammars in which certain parts of
speech, that are provided in a list, are selected for certain
slots.
SUMMARY
[0004] In an aspect, the invention features a poetry screen saver
including loading an author analysis model, randomly selecting a
seed word from the author analysis model, completing a poem
following the seed word and displaying the poem on an output
device.
[0005] In another aspect, the invention features an automatic
composition system including a central processing unit, a random
access memory, a display unit and automatically composing text that
appears on the display unit during a screen saver mode
[0006] The details of one or more embodiments of the invention are
set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below.
Other features, objects, and advantages of the invention will be
apparent from the description and drawings, and from the
claims.
DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS
[0007] The foregoing features and other aspects of the invention
will be described further in detail by the accompanying drawings,
in which:
[0008] FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a computer system storing a
poetry generation process.
[0009] FIG. 2 is a flow diagram of a poetry generation process
using the system of FIG. 1.
[0010] FIG. 3 is a flow diagram of a poem generation process using
the system of FIG. 1.
[0011] FIG. 4 is a table of exemplary word formats used by the
process of FIG. 3.
[0012] FIG. 5 is a flow diagram of the process used to analyze
text.
[0013] FIG. 6 is a flow diagram of the generation of 1-grams used
by the process of FIG. 3.
[0014] FIG. 7 is a flow diagram of the generation of bigrams used
by the process of FIG. 3.
[0015] FIG. 8 is a flow diagram of the generation of trigrams used
by the process of FIG. 3.
[0016] FIG. 9 is a flow diagram of the generation of quadrigrams
used by the process of FIG. 3.
[0017] FIG. 10 is a flow diagram of the generation of words used by
the process of FIG. 3.
[0018] FIG. 11 is a flow diagram of the generation of a poem
without rhythm and rhyme structure used by the process of FIG.
3.
[0019] FIG. 12 is a flow diagram of the generation of a word with
rhythm and rhyme structure used by the process of FIG. 3.
[0020] FIG. 13 is a flow diagram of the generation of a line with
rhythm and rhyme structure used by the process of FIG. 3.
[0021] FIG. 14 is a flow diagram of the generation of a poem with
rhythm and rhyme structure used by the process of FIG. 3.
[0022] FIG. 15 is a diagram of an exemplary poet's assistant
graphical user interface.
[0023] Like reference symbols in the various drawings indicate like
elements.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0024] Referring to FIG. 1, a computer system 10 for generating
poetry includes at least a central processing unit (CPU) 14, a
memory 16 containing a poetry generation process (not shown), a
link 18 to a storage device 20, and a link 22 to a display unit 24.
The storage device 20 may contain one or more data files 26 and 28.
The display unit 24 also includes an input device 30, such as a
keyboard and mouse, for example. The memory 16 includes a
windows-based operating system (not shown), such as Microsoft
Windows or Linux with Xfree Windows, for example, and a word
processing program (not shown), such as Microsoft Word or Corel
WordPerfect, for example.
[0025] In a particular embodiment, the operating system is Windows
95 and the computer system 10 includes Microsoft Word95, both from
Microsoft Corporation of Redman, Wash. Further, the computer system
10 includes a minimum of four megabytes of random access memory
(RAM) and twenty megabytes of storage space on the storage device
20.
[0026] Referring to FIG. 2, a poetry generation process 30 analyzes
32 an original poem and generates 34 an author analysis model. New
poems are automatically generated 36 in conjunction with the author
analysis model and/or in response to user input. The new poetry is
outputted 38 to a display, printed or stored on a storage
device.
[0027] Referring to FIG. 3, a process 40 to generate an original
poem includes scanning 42 selections of poems by an author. The
poems scanned are used to generate and store 44 an author analysis
model. A user selects 46 an interface, specifically, a poetic
assistant interface 48 and/or a screen saver interface 50. The
process generates 52 an original poem(s) from the author analysis
model. The original poem(s) is displayed 54 on the display unit, or
stored on a suitable storage medium. The poem will have a similar
style to the poem(s) originally analyzed and contained in the
author analysis model, but will be original poetry generated by the
process 30 (of FIG. 2).
[0028] The process 40 (of FIG. 3) may combine authors by generating
poet personalities using multiple author analysis models. A poet
personality also includes a set of parameters that control certain
aspects of the poetry generation process. Thus, there can be a
combination of author analysis models in a single poet
personality.
[0029] As indicated above, selections of poems by an author are
scanned by the process 40 to generate an author analysis model. The
selection of poems typically includes an input file of poems with
titles of a particular author. In a particular embodiment, poems to
be analyzed are contained in an ASCII text file that contains one
poem after another. Each poem contains a title, a blank line, the
poem on multiple lines, with one blank line between stanzas, and
another blank line. At the end of the poems a terminal line
containing only "******" may optionally be placed. However, the
process will stop reading the input poem(s) at the end of the ASCII
text file.
[0030] Rhyme words are marked with a rhyme number during initial
processing of the ASCII text, i.e., words which rhyme with each
other, are specified in the author analysis model by the characters
"\\\number\\\", where number is an integer with no commas, e.g.,
\\\4\\\. Words that rhyme with each other would have the same
number, generally referred to as rhyme numbers, and thus be a
member of the same rhyme set. Rhyme words are expected only at the
end of a line and the rhyme number typically starts over with each
stanza.
[0031] Referring to FIG. 4, a table having words and their
associated rhyme numbering is shown for the poem "why go slam, know
the lamb." The words "lamb" and "slam" are both numbered \\\1\\\
since they rhyme with each other and are placed in a first rhyme
set, while "go" and "know" are numbered \\\2\\\ since they rhyme
with each other, and not with "lamb" and "slam," and thus are
numbered to indicate membership in a second rhyme set. The
resulting poem is: why go \\\2\\\slam\\\1\\\, know \\\2\\\ the lamb
\\\1\\\.
[0032] Once marked with rhyme numbers, the text is further analyzed
to generate a linked data structure that specifies all n-grams
found in the text, where 2<=n<=4. Ngrams are sequences of n
consecutive characters in a document. Ngrams are generated from a
document by sliding a "window" of n characters wide across the
document's text, moving it one character at a time. Thus, the word
"testing" would generate the penta-grams "testi" "estin" and
"sting". In addition, all text may be converted to a single case
and non-alphabetic characters may be turned into spaces. After
these transformations, sequences of consecutive blanks are
compressed into a single space. The linked data structure (also
referred to as an n-gram data structure) is stored in a data file
located on a suitable storage unit as an author analysis model.
[0033] The end of line (EOL), end of poem (EOP), beginning of line
(BOL), and beginning of poem (BOP) are considered special
characters. In a particular embodiment, each stanza is considered
to be a poem. There is no difference between the end of a stanza in
an input set of poems to be analyzed and the end of the last stanza
in a poem. In one embodiment, the process writes one stanza poems.
For other embodiments the process may write multiple stanza poems.
Thus, for any user input word the process can access a linked data
structure from the data file of author analysis models and
determine all of the words that followed that user input word in
the author analysis model, along with a count for that bigram.
[0034] Punctuation also is attached to the word it abuts. For
example, "house" differs from "house," or "house!". For any pair of
user input words the process can access linked data structure from
the data file of author analysis models and determine all of the
words that followed that word in the author analysis model along
with a count for that trigram. For any triple grouping of user
input words, the process can access a linked data structure and
determine all the words that followed that word in the author
analysis model with a count for that quadrigram. In a particular
embodiment, a word hash table allows looking up a word in the
author analysis model and quickly determining a pointer into linked
data structure.
[0035] Thus, for each word, line, and stanza analyzed from an
author, its corresponding linked data structure is generated and
includes at least the following elements: [0036] (1) Pointer to a
word [0037] (2) Number of characters in the word [0038] (3) Count
for this n-gram [0039] (4) Pointer to the next structure in the
chain [0040] (5) Pointer to first structure at level n+1 [0041] (6)
Number of structures at level n+1
[0042] In a preferred embodiment, the above linked data structure
elements are the following data types using the C language: [0043]
ngram DEFTYPE struct [0044] (1)*CHAR [0045] (2) BYTE [0046] (3)
SHORT [0047] (4)*ngram [0048] (5)*ngram [0049] (6) SHORT
[0050] Other data definitions preferably included in the ngram
structure are the following, with their C language data type
following: [0051] *gram Pointer to first structure [0052] *gram
Pointer to last structure assigned [0053] SHORT Number of
structures assigned [0054] n1_gram pointer to the first word in the
ngram structures during decoding [0055] n2_gram pointer to the
second word in the ngram structures during decoding [0056] n3_gram
pointer to the third word in the ngram structures during decoding
[0057] n4_gram pointer to the fourth word in the ngram structures
during decoding [0058] hash.sub.--0 pointer to the first entry in
the hash table for words, entries are addresses which point to the
first character of a word. [0059] hash_size number of entries
allocated in word hash table [0060] hash_assign_n number of entries
assigned in word hash table [0061] hash_word_n pointer to first
entry in associated hash table which contains the size of each word
[0062] rhyme_hash.sub.--0 pointer to first entry in the hash table
for rhyme words [0063] rhyme_hash_size number of entries allocated
in rhyme hash table [0064] rhyme_hash_n pointer to first entry in
the associated rhyme hash table which contains the size of each
word [0065] current_rhyme_target pointer to current rhyme target
word in ngram structures [0066] time_limit.sub.--1 time limit for
first phase of recursive line generation [0067] time_limit.sub.--2
time limit for second phase of recursive line generation [0068]
time_limit.sub.--3 time limit for third phase of recursive line
generation [0069] time_limit.sub.--4 time limit for fourth phase of
recursive line generation [0070] author_weight weight of an author
within a poet personality [0071] ngram.sub.--2_count bigram count
for a word for which a score is being computed [0072]
ngram.sub.--2_weight weight for the bigram for this author within
this poet personality [0073] ngram.sub.--2_exponent exponent for
the bigram count for this author within this poet personality
[0074] ngram.sub.--3_count trigram count for a word for which a
score is being computed [0075] ngram.sub.--3_weight weight for the
trigram for this author within this poet personality [0076]
ngram.sub.--3_exponent exponent for the trigram count for this
author within this poet personality [0077] ngram.sub.--4_count
quadrigram count for a word for which a score is being computed
[0078] ngram.sub.--4_weight weight for the quadrigram ram for this
author within this poet personality [0079] ngram.sub.--4_exponent
exponent for the quadrigram count for this author within this poet
personality
[0080] Referring to FIG. 5, a process 60 used to analyze text
includes generating an n-gram by processing 62 input text, such as
ASCII text stored in an input file. Lines containing a title are
ignored and discarded 64. A first word in the text under analysis
has a special character (BOP) placed 66 in front of the first
character. The last word in the poem has a special character (EOP)
placed 68 after a last character of the word. The first word in
each line has a special character (BOL) placed 70 in front of the
first character. The last word in each line has a special character
(EOL) placed 72 after the last character of the word. Carriage
return and linefeed characters are discarded 74. All punctuation
associated with the word is treated like any other character. Each
stanza is treated as a separate poem, and the last word of the
stanza is an end-of-poem word and is terminated 76 with the (EOP)
character. The process 60 generates 76 a linked data structure for
the text. The linked data structure includes 1-grams, bigrams,
trigrams, and quadrigrams in both a forward and backward direction.
As mentioned above, for any subsequent user input word, the process
60 can locate the user input word in the linked data structure and
determine words that follow it in the link structure. The process
60 may also "back up" one word in the linked data structure, if
needed.
[0081] Referring now to FIG. 6, the process 80 used to generate the
1-grams from the processed text of FIG. 5 includes feeding 82 the
processed text and scanning 84 the processed text word by word. The
process determines 86 whether a word has been scanned. For each
word scanned, a look-up is performed 88 on a word hash table. A
determination 90 is made as to whether the word was found in the
word hash table.
[0082] If the word is found in the word hash table, the appropriate
count in the link structure (ngram structure) for the word is
incremented 92 and the process checks 86 whether another word was
scanned. The count indicates a number of occurrences of the word in
the link structure. If the word is not found in the word hash
table, the word is added 94 to the word hash table and a hash
assign number is associated with the word. The process 80 sets up
96 1-gram in the n-gram structure for the word. The ngram structure
will include at least an address of the first character of the
word, the number of characters in the word, and a count equal to
one. All of the 1-gram words will be in a chain in the ngram
structure. The process 80 then checks 86 whether another word was
scanned. If not, the process 80 exits 98.
[0083] Referring to FIG. 7, a process 100 used to generate bigrams
includes, for each 1-gram in a linked data structure, all examples
of the word in the scanned text are found 102. A list of words that
follow the word being scanned, along with associated counts, is
generated 104 for each word. For each following word, an ngram
structure at the bigram level with appropriate pointers is
generated 106. The ngram structure at the bigram level will include
at least an address of the first character of the second word in
the bigram, the number of characters in the word being scanned, a
count equal to one, and an address of next bigram for the word
being scanned to provide a chain of words.
[0084] To generate a trigram, the process assumes that all of the
1-gram words will be in a chain in the ngram structures. Each
1-gram in the linked data structure is processed and, all of the
bigrams for that word are scanned.
[0085] Referring now to FIG. 8, a process 110 used to generate
trigrams determines 112 all examples of the bigram in the text. A
list of all words that follow the bigram with counts for each
trigrams word is generated 114. For each trigram, an ngram
structure at the trigram level with the appropriate pointers is
generated 116. The appropriate link structure for each trigram
includes at least the address of the first character of the third
word in the trigram, the number of characters in the word, count
set equal to zero, and an address of a next trigram for the word
under analysis, to generate a chain of trigrams for the word being
scanned.
[0086] To generate a quadrigram, the process 100 assumes of the
1-gram words are in a chain of words in the ngram structures. Each
word in the chain is processed. For each word, all of the bigrams
for that word are scanned. For each bigram, all of the trigrams for
the word under analysis are scanned.
[0087] Referring now to FIG. 9, a process 120 used to generate a
quadrigram locates 122 all occurrences of the trigram in the text
being processed. A list of all words following the associated
trigram with counts for each scanned word is generated 124. For
each quadrigram, an ngram structure at the quadrigram level with
the appropriate pointers is generated 126. The link structure
contains at least an address of the first character of the fourth
word in the quadrigram, the number of characters in the fourth
word, a count equal to one, and the address of a next quadrigram
for the word under analysis to generate a chain of quadrigrams for
the word being scanned.
[0088] In an alternate embodiment, instead of first processing all
1-grams, then all bigrams, then all trigrams and then all
quadrigrams, the process may generate all the 1-grams, bigrams,
trigrams and quadrigrams for a particular word, then go to the next
word, and so on, until all words are processed.
[0089] As mentioned above, a backward ngram analysis is also
performed unless there are no rhyme words (indicated by the absence
of rhyme numbers). The backwards ngram structures (with 1-grams,
bigrams, trigrams and quadrigrams with the words in reverse) is
used for various stages in a recursive process to generate lines
that match a rhythm and rhyme criteria fully described below.
[0090] An input to a rhyme analysis utility is a set of poems with
the rhyme word sets indicated, as discussed above. A user can
convert a set of poems without rhyme word sets indicated to one
with the rhyme word sets indicated, using the rhyme analysis
utility.
[0091] The output of the rhyme analysis utility is a set of ngram
structures similar to bigrams. Instead of bigrams, however, the
word pairs indicate word rhyme pairs.
[0092] For a rhyme pair "a" and "b", both "a" followed by "b" and
"b" followed by "a" are put in as rhyme "bigrams".
[0093] For rhyme sets of more than two words, all combinations are
generated. Thus, by way of example, if "spin", "begin" and "within"
were a three word rhyme set, then all of the following six rhyme
"bigrams" would be put into ngram structures: [0094] spin begin
[0095] begin spin [0096] spin within [0097] within spin [0098]
begin within [0099] within begin
[0100] The rhythm and rhyme structures found in the poems are also
analyzed and saved by the process. A rhythm/rhyme structure of "20
a b b a" signifies that the lines have an average of 20 syllables,
and the rhyme pattern is the last word of the first line rhymes
with the last word of the fourth line, the last word of the second
line rhymes with the last word of the third line, and so forth.
[0101] The number of syllables in a word is determined by the
process as a mapping of the number of characters, based on a set of
parameters, and therefore, the number of syllables is only an
estimate.
[0102] There are three forms of output from the rhyme analysis
utility: [0103] 1. printing of all rhyme pairs [0104] 2. printing
of all words on a line which all rhyme with each other. [0105] 3.
printing of the rhythm and rhyme structures found in the analyzed
poems.
[0106] In summary, the process 30 (of FIG. 2) generates and stores
a series of data structures for an author's poem in a data file.
Each author poem has a data file containing linked data structures
representing rhyme sets and words that precede and follow each
individual word of each individual poem, i.e., 1-grams, bigrams,
trigrams and quadrigrams. This datafile is used by the process to
generate original poetry that may rhyme or not. As a user inputs a
word via a word processing program, the process locates the user
word in an appropriate author analysis model. Once the word is
located in the author analysis model, the process 30 can generate a
next word, can complete a line, and/or can complete a poem by
looking at the 1-grams, bigrams, trigrams and quadrigrams for the
user word.
[0107] Referring now to FIG. 10, a process 130 used for basic word
generation includes generating 132 a list of words that follow the
last word written by a user or automatically by the process and
saved in memory, providing a user linked data structure. Pointers
to user n-gram data structure generated for a new original poem,
described below, are continually updated, so that the pointer for
the current bigram becomes a pointer to the current trigram once a
word is written by the user or process.
[0108] A new word is received 134 from the user (e.g., via keyword
input in a word processing program) or randomly generated by the
process from an author analysis model. A count is determined 136
for the user n-gram structure being assembled (i.e., 1-gram,
bigram, trigram and quadrigram) and stored in memory for the new
poem. A score is computed 138 for each new word input by the user.
A bigram count is raised to the bigram_exponent_parameter power and
multiplied by the bigram_weight. The trigram count is raised to the
trigram_exponent_parameter power and multiplied by the
trigram_weight. The quadrigram count is raised to the
quadrigram_exponent_parameter power and multiplied by the
quadrigram_weight. These three values are added together to form
the score for that word. Thus,
score=author_weight*(ngram.sub.--2_weight*(ngram.sub.--2_count**ngram.su-
b.--2_exponent)+(ngram.sub.--3_weight*(ngram.sub.--3_count**ngram.sub.--3_-
exponent)+(ngram.sub.--4_weight*(ngram.sub.--4_count**ngram.sub.--4_expone-
nt))
[0109] If there is more than one author analysis model in a poet
personality being used by the user in generating the new poem,
described below, then the score is the sum of the scores achieved
for each author analysis model selected by the user and contained
in the poet personality. The parameters author_weight,
ngram.sub.--2_weight, ngram.sub.--2_exponent, ngram.sub.--3_weight,
ngram.sub.--3_exponent, ngram.sub.--4_weight, and
ngram.sub.--4_exponent are different for each author in a poet
personality.
[0110] A poet personality contains one or more author analysis
models and is under user control. If the poet personality contains
more than one author analysis model, each of the link structures
contained in each author analysis model are used by the process to
generate new words, lines and stanzas for the user. Each author
analysis model within a poet personality has its own set of bigram,
trigram and quadrigram exponent and weight parameters. There is
also an overall parameter providing weight for each author analysis
model (author_weight) within a poet personality, which also can be
user selected.
[0111] After the user inputs a word, the process uses a random
number generator to choose 140, a next word from a list of possible
bigram/trigram/quadrigram words found in the author analysis
model(s) within the poet personality, with each process provided
word given a probability of being selected proportional to its
score. A root "word" (BOP) is selected 142 which has bigrams to
words in the author analysis model that start with the BOP special
character. A word is then written 144 by the process that ends with
the special character EOP. The process determines 146 whether there
is another word inputted by the user. If not, the process ends 148.
If there is another word, the process begins again 132.
[0112] Using the basic word generation process described above with
reference to FIG. 10, the process 130 may write a poem without
rhythm and rhyme structure (i.e., ignoring rhyme numbers) and with
rhythm and rhyme structure (i.e., considering rhyme numbers).
[0113] Referring now to FIG. 11, a process 160 for writing a poem
without rhythm and rhythm structure begins with Beginning of Poem
(BOP) that points to words that start with the End of Poem (EOP)
special character 162. The process continues where n1_gram points
164 to this first printed word. The variables n2_gram, n3_gram, and
n4_gram are initialized 166 to zero. The process loops back to 172
to recursively begin again. If the last word written ends with the
End of Poem (EOP) special character 168 the process ends at 170.
Otherwise, the process loops back 162.
[0114] Writing a poem with rhythm and rhyme structure involves
recursive generation of each line to achieve rhyme and rhythm.
[0115] As described above, a poem may be generated simply by
starting with (EOP) and generating words using the basic word
generation process of FIG. 10 until a word ending in (EOP) is
generated.
[0116] A poem may optionally have a rhythm and rhyme structure.
[0117] A rhythm structure specifies a target length for the line as
a number of syllables. In a particular embodiment, the process does
not use a dictionary specifying the number of syllables in each
word. Instead, a simple look-up table is used to map the number of
characters in a word to the number of syllables.
[0118] A target length for a line is the number of syllables
specified by the rhythm structure plus or minus a fraction of that
length specified by a parameter.
[0119] The rhyme structure specifies the pattern of rhyme words, as
well as the number of lines.
[0120] For example, a poem may specify 20 syllables and a rhyme
structure of: "1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4".
[0121] This means there are eight lines and the last word in line 1
rhymes with the last word in line 2, the last word in line 3 rhymes
with the last word in line 4, the last word in line 5 rhymes with
the last word in line 6, and the last word in line 7 rhymes with
the last word in line 8.
[0122] If a rhyme structure was 1, 2, 2, 1, 3, 4, 4, 3, then the
last word of the first line rhymes with the last word of the fourth
line, the last word of the second line rhymes with the last word of
the third line, the last word of the fifth line rhymes with the
last word of the eighth line, and the last word of the sixth line
rhymes with the last word of the seventh line.
[0123] Rhythm and rhyme structures may be extracted from an author
analysis model or specified by the user or designer.
[0124] A recursive generation process is used to generate lines
provided by the basic word generation process described above with
reference to FIG. 10, yet also follows the rhythm and rhyme
structure. Using the recursive generation process, the process
potentially tries every combination of valid word sequences
(generated by the basic word generation process of FIG. 10) to find
(the first) word that matches the rhythm structure (defined as a
length in syllables, with the number of syllables in each word
inferred from word length) and rhyme structure (defined as finding
a line end word that is in a rhyme pair with a target rhyme word in
a previous line, if any).
[0125] Each displaying and/or storing of a new poem involves the
execution of three routines, i.e., a write word routine, a write
line routine, and a write poem routine.
[0126] Referring to FIG. 12, a process 180 used for writing a word
with rhythm and rhythm structure begins with initializing 182 an
arbitrary success variable to zero. The word generation process of
FIG. 10 is used to select 184 a word from an author analysis model
that has not been selected yet. A determination 186 is made if
there are no words that have already been selected in this loop
that are remaining. If there are no words, the process backs up 188
one word in the author analysis model and then loops to select 184
a word. If there are words that have been selected, a determination
190 is made on whether the line is now "successful". Success is
defined as being within the length range and having a proper rhyme
word if a rhyme word is needed, or any word if no rhyme word is
needed. If the word is successful, the word is displayed or stored
192. Updated pointers into the linked ngram structure are generated
194 for the dynamic user n-gram structure being used to represent
the words being written by the process for the user. The success
variable is then set equal to one 196 and the process exits 198. If
the word is not successful, a determination 200 is made on whether
the selected word is less than the maximum length and not having a
proper rhyme word within the length range. The selected word is
displayed 202 if it is less than the maximum length and does not
have a proper rhyme word within the length range. The pointers into
the user n-gram structure are updated 204 and the process
initializes 182 the success variable to zero. If the selected word
is greater than the maximum length and has the proper rhyme word
within the length range, the process backs up one word 188 in the
other analysis model.
[0127] Referring to FIG. 13, a process 210 used for writing a line
with rhythm and rhythm structure begins by writing 212 a word (in
the method described in conjunction with FIG. 11). The process then
determines 214 whether the success variable is set equal to zero.
If the success variable is equal to zero, the process writes 212 a
word obtained from the author analysis model. If the success
variable is not one, the process exits at 216.
[0128] Referring to FIG. 14, a process 220 used for writing a poem
with rhythm and rhythm structure starts 220 with the special
character end of poem (EOP). A set of variables are initialized
224. More specifically, n1_gram points to EOP. N2_gram, n3_gram,
n4_gram are all set equal to zero. The process writes 226 a line
before the EOP. The process determines 228 if the last word written
in the most recent line ends with the special character end of poem
(EOP). If it does not, the process writes 226 a line. If the last
word written does end with the special character end of poem (EOP),
the process exits 230.
[0129] The above process 220 describes a forward recursive method
to write a line using a Markov modeling based next-word generation
process, and using a recursive method to generate all possible word
combinations until an appropriate rhyme word is found (if any are
required) within the appropriate length (rhythm) range. This
recursive process may loop indefinitely, and thus a time limit is
used. If this time limit is exceeded, then other strategies are
used by the process which may "break" the link between the last
word of the previous line and the first word of the current line.
The following alternatives may be: [0130] 1. First try, the above
forward recursive algorithm within a time limit (time_limit). If
successful, the process is finished with the line; [0131] 2. If
(1.) is not successful within time_limit.sub.--1, then try a
backward process. Generate the line backwards, using a backwards
link structure. The "first" word in the backwards line (which will
become the last word) is the desired rhyme word. Generate the line
backwards in the same recursive manner as (1.) above, until the
last word in the backwards line (which will become the first word)
is found that properly links up with the actual last word of the
previous line. This process is tried within the time limit defined
by time_limit.sub.--2; [0132] 3. If (2.) is not successful within
time_limit.sub.--2, then try the backwards process again, but the
last word in the backwards line (which will become the first word
in the line) may be any start-line word (i.e., any word that begins
with the character (BOL)), not necessarily one that links to the
actual last word of the previous line. This process is tried within
the time limit defined by time_limit.sub.--3; if 3 is not
successful with time_limit.sub.--3, then try the backwards process
again, but the word in the backwards line (which will become the
first word in the line) may be any word, not necessarily one that
starts with the character (BOL).
[0133] Referring back to FIG. 3, the user of the process 40 selects
an interface 46. The user may select the screen saver interface 50.
As a user "right clicks" on the desktop of the Windows 95 operating
system user interface, a dialogue box appears. Choosing
"properties," then "screen saver," then "poet screen," generates
additional screen saver dialogue boxes that are used in conjunction
with the computer generated computer system as described above.
[0134] In an embodiment, a primary screen saver dialogue contains
one or more of the following information and options.
TABLE-US-00001 Information on upgrade A link to a dialogue box
which contains further information including ordering Basic screen
saver options Length of time to wait before initiating screen saver
mode and which corner of the screen moving the mouse to will
initiate screen saver mode Select from available poet Activates the
number chosen personalities Select order Random or sequential Color
of poems Random or selected Background Color Font Font color Size
Font size Save Write to disk or not Scrolling Rate of scrolling
Random number generator On or off Control Scrolling Stop or rate of
scrolling
[0135] The above choices may have default values. The choices also
may require more than one dialogue box, in which case appropriate
parameters would be grouped into a secondary box.
[0136] Once the screen saver is activated, one poem after another
scrolls by at a user controllable rate (controlled by a dialogue
box parameter). The poems appear in a font, font size and color
selected by the appropriate dialogue box parameters with the
specified color.
[0137] Referring back to FIG. 3, the user may select the poet
assistant user interface 50. An example of poet's assistant
interface is shown in FIG. 16, described below. In a poet's
assistant dialogue box within the word processing program, the user
selects as many poet's assistant windows as desired. For each
selected window, the user further chooses a poet personality, and a
choice of `next word display,` `finish line display,` or `finish
poem display.` As will become apparent, a choice of next word
display will provide a `next word` after the user types a word in
the word processing program, the choice of `finish line` will
provide a completed line after the user types a word in the word
processing program, and the choice of `finish poem` will provide a
complete poem, i.e., one stanza, after the user types a word in the
word processing program.
[0138] The poet's assistant dialogue box also includes a button to
activate a `define poet personality` dialogue box, described below,
and an `analyze author` dialogue box. In an embodiment, these two
actions, i.e., define poet personality and analyze author, may be
activated from a tools pull-down menu when the poet's assistant
dialogue box is open or when the word processing program is
open.
[0139] As previously mentioned, the user writes his/her poem(s) in
a word processing program executing on Microsoft Windows95.
Superimposed in Microsoft Word, for example, while the user is
writing his/her poems are the multiple poet's assistant windows, as
selected in the poet's assistant dialogue box. Each poet's
assistant window starts out at a certain size, but can be moved and
sized by the user as provided by the operating system.
[0140] Each poet's assistant window has a title indicating the name
of the poet personality, the authors included in that poet
personality, and an indication of whether it is a next word
display, next line display, or finish poem display.
[0141] The process of the computer generated poetry system will
write one word at a time in each of the windows, alternating
between each of the windows. Once the visible portion of the
windows is filled, process continues to write words to all of these
poet's assistant's windows, so the user may scroll to view the
additional text, as provided by the operating system.
[0142] The user can cut, copy and paste text from any of these
poet's assistant windows to his or her poem in the Microsoft Word
display, as provided by the operating system and the word
processing program. Additionally, the user may write a word and
query the process to provide a list of all the words that rhyme
with that word as found in any of the author analysis models.
[0143] A "Define Poet Personality" dialogue box may be activated by
a button in the Poet's Assistant Dialogue Box (or, alternatively,
by selection of an item from a Tools menu).
[0144] A Poet Personality is based on the previous analysis of one
or more authors and thus involves one or more author analysis
models. The Define Poet Personality dialogue box prompts the user
to select one or more authors from the list of authors that have
been analyzed previously and for which author analysis models
exist. The user is also prompted to give a personalized name to the
Poet Personality.
[0145] For each author analysis model in the Poet Personality, the
user can link to another dialogue box to provide poem generation
parameters for that author analysis model within the Poet
Personality. If the user does not link to this additional dialogue
box, then default parameters are provided.
[0146] In an embodiment, these parameters are listed in the
following table with their default values, if appropriate.
TABLE-US-00002 Overall Weight for this Author default = 1 Weight of
bigram original poet default = 1 Exponent of bigram original
default = 1. A high exponent poet will give higher priority to
higher bigram counts. A bigram exponent => 3 or 4 will tend to
give absolute priority to higher counts. An exponent of 1 will
scale the probabilities equal to the relative counts. An exponent
between 0 and 1 will give only soft priority to higher counts. Thus
a high exponent will more closely follow the original author, but
too high an exponent risks writing the same poem over and over.
Negative exponents will actually give higher weight to lower counts
and visa versa. Weight of trigram original poet default = 1
Exponent of trigram original default = 1 poet Weight of quadrigram
original default = -100. The reason poet for a high negative weight
for the quadrigram original poet is that we are using the
quadrigram original poet as a plagiarism avoidance algorithm. A
large positive weight on the quadrigram original poet would closely
follow the original author, but would risk plagiarizing that
author. A large negative weight prevents plagiarism. Exponent of
quadrigram original default = 1 poet Probability of using the
rhythm/ default = 1 rhyme structures for this author
[0147] A high exponent exaggerates the difference in counts. For
example, an exponent of 2 means that a count of 1 stays 1, whereas
a count of 2 becomes 4 and a count of 3 becomes 9. An exponent of 3
means that a count of 1 stays 1, whereas a count of 2 becomes 8 and
a count of 3 becomes 27. In a particular embodiment, all parameters
including exponents are floating point and can include fractions.
Thus, a high exponent (4 or greater) would tend to make the higher
counts usually "win". A very high exponent would mean that the
highest count would win virtually all the time. The advantage of a
high exponent is that it tends to select the words with the higher
bigram or trigram counts, and thus follows more closely the word
patterns found in the author analysis model. It should also be
noted that the generated poems would not plagiarize the poems of
the original authors because of the high negative weight on the
quadrigram original author analysis model which tends to act as an
anti-plagiarism safeguard. The disadvantage of a high exponent is
that the process will tend to always select the highest count and
thus will be more likely to repeat itself. With a very high
exponent, the process will tend to always write the same poem given
the same start word. For this reason, the process does not use the
parameters for the first word, but uses default parameters with
weights and exponents=1. With a very high exponent, the process
will tend to write the same poem for a particular start word, and
thus will write as many different poems as there are start words,
which would approximately equal the number of poems that were
analyzed in the author analysis model. Thus a very high exponent
would result in interesting poems, but a limited number of
them.
[0148] The advantage of lower exponents (around 1) is that the
number of poems is very large, but they will follow the original
author somewhat less closely. An exponent of 1, however, will
weight the probabilities in the same way that the original author
did.
[0149] Exponents between 0 and 1 will emphasize higher counts only
in a "soft" way, and will give only somewhat higher weight to
higher counts. An exponent of 0 will ignore counts and will give
all of the possible bigram and trigram words an equal weight
regardless of their frequency in the author analysis model.
However, the next word will still be limited to word sequences that
did occur in the bigrams and trigrams of the author analysis
model.
[0150] A negative exponent will give preference to lower counts. A
high negative exponent will tend to give absolute priority to the
lowest count, which is usually 1.
[0151] The bigram and trigram original poet weights provide the
relative influence of these two original poets. The trigram
original poet will tend to produce word sequences that more closely
follow the original author, although again plagiarism is avoided as
long as there is a strong negative weight on the quadrigram
original poet.
[0152] A strong negative weight on the quadrigram original poet
will avoid plagiarism (defined as four words in a row that match
the original author), although if none of the possible bigram and
trigram words avoids a four-long string from the author analysis
model, then one of these words will be used even though that
four-word sequence appeared in the author analysis model.
Otherwise, the program would just have to halt, which is not
desirable. Thus a strong negative weight on the quadrigram original
poet avoids plagiarism unless it cannot be avoided in a particular
situation, which would tend to be rare.
[0153] If one puts a strong positive weight on the quadrigram
original poet and a high quadrigram exponent, then the process
would tend to generate poems that matched the ones analyzed.
[0154] An Analyze Author dialogue box is activated by a button in
the Poet's Assistant Dialogue Box (or, alternatively, by selection
of an item from the tools menu), and is part of the operating
system and associated word processing program.
[0155] The user specifies an input and output file. The input file
contains poems in the appropriate format. The output file contains
the analyzed model.
[0156] The user also specifies the name of the author (or some
other description of the collection of poems/text being
analyzed).
[0157] The dialogue box contains a button which activates the
analysis.
[0158] It is preferred that the analysis should contain some
progress indicator.
[0159] Another button activates an interactive utility that allows
the user to specify rhyme words within a set of poems.
[0160] As indicated above, a name is specified for the poet
personality.
[0161] For each poet personality (which can include multiple author
analysis models), a number of authors may be specified.
[0162] For each author within a poet personality, there are the
following parameters with their C language data types:
TABLE-US-00003 Identity of author file STRING User input
author_weight DOUBLE weight of an author within a poet personality
Ngram_2_weight DOUBLE weight for the bigram for this author within
this poet personality Ngram_2_exponent DOUBLE exponent for the
bigram count for this author within this poet personality
Ngram_3_weight DOUBLE weight for this trigram for this author
within this poet personality Ngram_3_exponent DOUBLE exponent for
the trigram count for this author within this poet personality
Ngram_4_weight DOUBLE weight for the quadrigram ram for this author
within this poet personality Ngram_4_exponent DOUBLE exponent for
the quadrigram count for this author within this poet
personality
[0163] Thus, in poet's assistance mode, the user is writing his or
her own poem using a suitable word processing program. The process
monitors what the user is writing. The process displays a number of
windows that provide suggestions to the user to help stimulate the
user's imagination. Each window is associated with a particular
poet personality, that is defined by one or more author analysis
models plus a set of poetry generation parameters for each author
analysis model described above.
[0164] Referring to FIG. 15, a poet's assistant graphical user
interface (GUI) 250 includes a word processing region 252 and a
number of poet's assistant's windows 254, 256, and 258. Although
only three poet's assistant's windows 254, 256, and 258 are shown,
any number of poet's assistant's windows may be requested by a
user. In the poet's assistant GUI 250, poet's assistant window 254
is a next word window. Poet's assistant window 256 is a finish line
window, and poet's assistant window 258 is a finish poem window.
Other windows that may be requested by the user include an
alliteration window (not shown) and a rhymes/endings window (not
shown).
[0165] Each of the poet's assistant windows 254-258 provide output
in response to highlighted words generated by the user in the word
processing region 252. Specifically, the next word window 254
provides suggestions for a next word in a style of a poet
personality chosen by the user. The finish line window 256 provides
suggestions for an entire line of text in the style of the poet
personality chosen by the user. The finish poem window 258 provides
a finished poem in the style of the poet personality chosen by the
user.
[0166] The rhymes/endings window (not shown) provides suggestion of
words that rhyme with the users inputted words in the poet's
assistant GUI 250.
[0167] Each poet's assistant window 254-258 provides the user with
a selection of author analysis models to be included in a poet
personality.
[0168] As mentioned above, the user can have as many poet's
assistant windows opened as desired. It is recommended that the
user have multiple poet's assistant windows to provide as much
stimulation as possible. For example, the user could have ten
windows, three of which would be associated with a Robert Frost
author analysis model, one in finish poem mode 258, one in finish
line mode 256 and one in next word mode 254, two windows associated
with a T. S. Elliot author analysis model and four other windows
associated with other author analysis models.
[0169] Every time the user writes another word in the word
processing region 252 using the word processing program or in any
way modifies the poem he or she is writing, all of the poet's
assistant windows 254-258 change. The user can use the mouse to
select words or any size selection of text from any of the poet's
assistant windows 254-258 to paste into the poem being composed by
the user in the word processing region 252. Doing this would of
course change the user's poem in the word processing region 252 and
would cause all of the poet's assistance windows 254-258 to change
and generate new suggestions.
[0170] A purpose of the poet's assistant GUI 250 is not necessarily
to write the user's poems for him or her, but rather to spark the
user's imagination, to help suggest words, phrases, ideas, etc. In
writing poetry one of the most difficult aspects is finding ideas
and suggestions for words and phrases. Such reference works as
dictionaries, thesauruses, rhyming dictionaries, etc., are usually
limited in their usefulness for this purpose. The poet's assistance
mode is intended to provide a rich ever-changing source of such
words and ideas.
[0171] As mentioned above, the poet's assistance GUI 250 also
provides assistance in finding rhyme words in rhyme word window
(not shown). The user can highlight words in the word processing
region 252 from which rhymes are desired, and the poet's assistant
rhyme window will suggest rhyme words that were actually used for
the original author's that were analyzed in any of the selected
author analysis models of the poet personality. The finish poem
window 258 and finish line window 254 also write lines in poems
that follow the appropriate rhyme structure.
[0172] The author analysis can also analyze his or her own poems as
a basis for an author analysis model and then define one or more
poet personalities based on his or her own work. In this way, in
the poet assistant GUI 250, suggestions will be provided as to how
the user himself or herself would finish a poem or line or suggest
the next word based on that user's own work. A user can also
generate poet personalities that combine his or her own author
analysis model with the author analysis models from other
authors.
[0173] It is to be understood that while the invention has been
described in conjunction with the detailed description thereof, the
foregoing description is intended to illustrate and not limit the
scope of the invention, which is defined by the scope of the
appended claims. Other aspects, advantages, and modifications are
within the scope of the following claims.
* * * * *