HP Labs India

VideoBook

HP VideoBook is a solution from HP Labs India that augments the book reading experience with videos. The solution is based on an algorithm that selects videos for an input document (textbook chapter, training manual, news article etc.). The algorithm identifies important topics in the input document and forms queries to a video source. The results are ranked using a video selection algorithm that takes into account diversity and relevance of the videos and the coverage of the book topics. Finally, the book page and videos are presented side by side.

The solution is being productized as a cloud hosted solution as well as a client-server solution.The cloud version of the solution is currently hosted on the HP cloud and the initial use case is targeted at improving text book based education (see Image 1 below). Students can login to the system from a browser and access videos relevant to each page of the textbook chapter. The software is implemented using J2EE technologies.
Image 1: VideoBook - Cloud hosted version accessed from a browser


A client server version (aimed at enterprises) has been developed targeted at employee training an on-boarding. This is architected as plug-ins to Microsoft Word and Adobe acrobat. When the user opens the documents in the document reader, the plugin fetches videos relevant to the document and displays them in the document reader. The user can select and watch a video.
Image 2: VideoBook - VideoBook Client Server version


The main research challenges in VideoBook are to extract relevant topics from the textbook, source appropriate videos from a video source (e.g. Youtube) and to rank and select the videos. We have developed a key phrase extraction technique for identifying important topics in the textbook. We have also developed a video selection algorithm that simultaneously optimizes multiple criteria such as relevance of videos, coverage of textbook topics and diversity of videos.

Videobook has been trialed in schools at Bangalore and Ahmedabad India using HP's Lab-in-a-box as the hardware platform (Image 3). This was done with the support of HP's Sustainability and Social Innovation (SSI) organization. It is also being piloted at colleges and universities.



Image 3: VideoBook trials at Ahmedabad India using HP's Lab-in-a-box



The product is due to be launched shortly in India in two versions by Technology services (TS) India: an education version (for use in schools, colleges and universities) and an enterprise version (for employee training and onboarding) soon.

VideoBook from HP Labs India has won the 2012 Wall Street Journal Technology Innovation Award in the Education Technology category.

For technical clarifications mail to Krishnan Ramanathan

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This page was last updated on November 6, 2012