Calculation of a degree of similarity of users

• US 10,095,772 B2
• Filed: 01/22/2016
• Issued: 10/09/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 01/22/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Kanayama, Hiroshi, Kosugi, Akihiro
• Primary Examiner(s): D'AGOSTINO, PAUL ANTHONY
• Application Number:
  US15/004,561
• Publication Number:
  US 20170212950A1
• Time in Patent Office: 991 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/285 Clustering or classification
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 7/02 of the type wherein the student is expected to construct an answer to the question which is presented or wherein the machine gives an answer to the question presented by a student

Abstract

A method, a computer system, and a computer program product are provided for calculating a degree of similarity of users. Each user may be a preparer and an answerer of one or more quizzes. The method includes collecting one or more quizzes from one or more users as preparers and providing the collected quizzes to one or more user as answerers. The method further includes collecting one or more answering activities of one or more answerers to the provided quizzes from the one or more answerers, wherein a pair includes a preparer and an answerer. The method additionally includes calculating, for each pair, a degree of similarity of knowledge background, based on the one or more answering activities of the one or more answerers.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for grouping users based on a degree of similarity of knowledge background of the users to improve a question-answer computer system, the method comprising:

collecting one or more quizzes each including one or more questions from one or more of the users designated as preparers, the one or more quizzes being collected via one or more first graphical user interfaces displayed on one or more first web pages provided across at least one network to one or more first user terminals associated with the one or more preparers;

wherein a first graphical user interface associated with a given one of the one or more preparers includes;

an area for the given preparer to input a question;

a list of answers provided by an administrator of the question-answer computer system; and

user identification information corresponding to the given preparer;

providing he collected quizzes to one or more of the users designated as answerers;

collecting one or more answering activities to the provided quizzes from the one or more answerers, the one or more answering activities being collected via one or more second graphical user interfaces displayed on one or more second web pages provided across the at least one network to one or more second user terminals associated with the one or more answerers;

wherein a second graphical user interface associated with a given one of the one or more preparers includes;

an area for displaying a question to the given answerer;

an area for the given answerer to input an answering activity; and

user identification information corresponding to the given answerer;

calculating, for each pair of the one or more preparers and the one or more answerers, a degree of similarity of knowledge background based on the one or more answering activities; and

generating data for training the question-answer computer system based on the degrees of similarity of knowledge background, including grouping the users according to the degrees of similarity.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein grouping the users according to the degrees of similarity includes performing at least one operation selected from the group consisting of:

clustering the users according to the degrees of similarity of knowledge background, selecting one or more pairs of the one or more preparers and the one or more answerers having at least a predetermined threshold degree of similarity of knowledge background, and sorting the users according to the degrees of similarity of knowledge background.

3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising generating one or more features indicative of a knowledge background of the one or more answerers calculated from the answerer activities, the degrees of similarity of knowledge background being calculated based on the one or more features.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the one or more features include at least one feature selected from the group consisting of:

at least one of a correct answer ate of each answerer, an average response time for each answerer to reach correct answers, and the average number of web pages that each answerer referred to before reaching correct answers.

5. The method according to claim 4, further comprising normalizing at least one of the average response time and the average number of web pages by standard deviation of results by one answerer, standard deviation of all results for one quiz, or standard deviation of results for the quizzes by one preparer, the degrees of similarity of knowledge background being calculated based on the normalization result.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the degree of similarity of knowledge background of the given answerer is calculated on condition that the given answerer provides at least a predetermined number of answering activities to the one or more questions of the corresponding quiz.

7. A system for grouping users based on a degree of similarity of knowledge background of the users to improve a question-answer computer system, the system comprising:

a memory storing a program, which, when executed on the processor, performs an operation comprising;

collecting one or more quizzes each including one or more questions from one or more of the user users designated as preparers, the one or more quizzes being collected via one or more first graphical user interfaces displayed on one or more first web pages provided across at least one network to one or more first user terminals associated with the one or more preparers;

wherein a first graphical user interface associated with a given one of the one or more preparers includes;

an area for the given preparer to input a question;

a list of answers provided by an administrator of the question-answer computer system; and

user identification information corresponding to the given preparer;

providing e collected quizzes to one or more of the users designated as answerers;

collecting one or more answering activities to the provided quizzes from the one or more answerers, the one or more answering activities being collected via one or more second graphical user interfaces displayed on one or more second web pages provided across the at least one network to one or more second user terminals associated with the one or more answerers;

wherein a second graphical user interface associated with a given one of the one or more preparers includes;

an area for displaying a question to the given answerer;

an area for the given answerer to input an answering activity; and

user identification information corresponding to the given answerer;

calculating, for each pair of the one or more preparers and the one or more answerers, a degree of similarity of knowledge background based on the one or more answering activities; and

generating data for training the question-answer computer system based on the degrees of similarity of knowledge background, including grouping the users according to the degrees of similarity.

8. The system according to claim 7, wherein grouping the users according to the degrees of similarity includes performing at least one operation selected from the group consisting of:

clustering the users according to the degrees of similarity of knowledge background, selecting one or more pairs of the one or more preparers and the one or more answerers having at least a predetermined threshold degree of similarity of knowledge background, and sorting the users according to the degrees of similarity of knowledge background.

9. The system according to claim 7, the operation further comprising generating one or more features indicative of a knowledge background of the one or more answerers calculated from the answerer activities, the degrees of similarity of knowledge background being calculated based on the one or more features.

10. The system according to claim 9, wherein the one or more features include at least one feature selected from the group consisting of:

at least one of a correct answer rate of each answerer, an average response time for each answerer to reach correct answers, and the average number of web pages that each answerer referred to before reaching correct answers.

11. The system according to claim 10, the operation further comprising normalizing at least one of the correct answer rate, the average response time and the average number of web pages by standard deviation of results by one answerer, standard deviation of all results for one quiz, or standard deviation of results for the quizzes by one preparer, the degrees of similarity of knowledge background being calculated based on the normalization result.

12. The system according to claim 7, wherein the degree of similarity of knowledge background of the given answerer is calculated on condition that the given answerer provides at least a predetermined number of answering activities to the one or more questions of the corresponding quiz.

13. A computer program product for grouping users based on a degree of similarity of knowledge background of the users to improve a question-answer computer system, the computer program product comprising a computer usable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, wherein the computer readable storage medium is not a transitory signal per se, the program instructions executable by a computer to cause the computer to perform a method comprising:

collecting one or more quizzes each including one or more questions from one or more of the users designated as preparers, the one or more quizzes being collected via one or more first graphical user interfaces displayed on one or more first web pages provided across at least one network to one or more first user terminals associated with the one or more preparers;

wherein a first graphical user interface associated with a given one of the one or more preparers includes;

an area for the given preparer to input a question;

a list of answers provided by an administrator of the question-answer computer system; and

user identification information corresponding to the given preparer;

providing the collected quizzes to one or more of the users designated as answerers;

collecting one or more answering activities to the provided quizzes from the one or more answerers, the one or more answering activities being collected via one or more second graphical user interfaces displayed on one or more second web pages provided across the at least one network to one or more second user terminals associated with the one or more answerers;

wherein a second graphical user interface associated with a given one of the one or more preparers includes;

an area for displaying a question to the given answerers

an area for the given answerer to input an answering activity; and

user identification information corresponding to the given answerer;

calculating, for each pair of the one or more preparers and the one or more answerers, a degree of similarity of knowledge background based on the one or more answering activities; and

generating data for training the question-answer computer system based on the degrees of similarity of knowledge background, including grouping the users according to the degrees of similarity.

14. The computer program product according to claim 13, wherein grouping the users according to the degrees of similarity includes performing at least one operation selected from the group consisting of:

clustering the users according to the degrees of similarity of knowledge background, selecting one or more pairs of the one or more preparers and the one or more answerers having at least a predetermined threshold degree of similarity of knowledge background, and sorting the users according to the degrees of similarity of knowledge background.

15. The computer program product according to claim 13, the method further comprising generating one or more features indicative of a knowledge background of the one or more answerers calculated frown the answerer activities, the degrees of similarity of knowledge background being calculated based on the one or more features.

16. The computer program product according to claim 15, wherein the one or more features include at least one feature selected from the group consisting of:

at least one of a correct answer rate of each answerer, an average response time for each answerer to reach correct answers, and the average number of web pages that each answerer referred to before reaching correct answers.

17. The computer program product according to claim 16, the method further comprising normalizing at least one of the correct answer rate, the average response time and the average number of web pages by standard deviation of results by one answerer, standard deviation of all results for one quiz, or standard deviation of results for the quizzes by one preparer, the degree of similarity of knowledge background being calculated based on the normalization result.

18. The computer program product according to claim 13, wherein the degree of similarity of knowledge background of the given answerer is calculated on condition that the given answerer provides at least a predetermined number of answering activities to the one or more questions of the corresponding quiz.