Searching alternative data sources

• US 10,127,306 B2
• Filed: 11/28/2012
• Issued: 11/13/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 11/28/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Duong, Quang T., Gordon, David M., Schmidt, David L., Will, Scott A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Waldron, Scott A.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Lodhi, Andalib F
• Application Number:
  US13/687,270
• Publication Number:
  US 20140149451A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,176 Days
• Field of Search: 707769, 707802
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/33 Querying
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/41 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures

Abstract

A method and system for searching alternative data sources include monitoring a first communications source broadcasting unstructured data, and a second communications source broadcasting structured data. The method further includes generating text from the unstructured data and from the structured data collected, and parsing the generated text. The method also includes defining a search phrase, and analyzing the generated or parsed text for semantically relevant text in relation to the search phrase. The method also includes selecting the semantically relevant text.

Claims

1. A computer system for searching data sources, comprising:

one or more computer processors, one or more computer-readable storage media, and program instructions stored on one or more of the computer-readable storage media for execution by at least one of the one or more processors, the program instructions comprising;

program instructions to capture unstructured broadcast data from a broadcast source by using a listening device, wherein the broadcast source includes one or more of a television broadcast source and a radio broadcast source;

program instructions to convert the captured unstructured broadcast data to a first structured data, the converting comprising detecting an audio component of the captured unstructured broadcast data and converting the audio component to structured text;

program instructions to receive a second structured data from a source different from the broadcast source;

program instructions to capture a digital image from a source different from the second structured data source, wherein the digital image includes graphical text elements recognizable as text by optical character recognition software;

program instructions to convert the graphical text elements of the digital image to a third structured data, the third structured data comprising structured text from the graphical text elements;

program instructions to generate text of contents of each of the first structured data, the second structured data, and the third structured data; and

to store the generated text on a searchable data storage device;

program instructions to parse the stored text by (i) collecting only phrases relevant to a specified field and (ii) grouping phrases recognized as comprising temporal references;

program instructions to receive a search phrase and a selection of a particular language from a user;

program instructions to semantically analyze the parsed text by ignoring any text not in the particular language;

program instructions to search the semantically analyzed text using the received search phrase;

program instructions to generate search results based on searching the semantically analyzed text; and

program instructions to provide the search results for communication to the user.

2. The computer system of claim 1, wherein generating the text further comprises:

program instructions to identify one or more advertisement components of the stored text, wherein the searching is based on the one or more advertisement components.

3. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the unstructured broadcast data includes one or more of analog audio and analog video having an analog audio component.

4. A computer program product for searching sources of data, comprising a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having program code embodied therewith, the program code executable by a processor of a computer to perform a method comprising:

capturing, by the processor, unstructured broadcast data from a broadcast source by using a listening device, wherein the broadcast source includes one or more of a television broadcast source and a radio broadcast source;

converting, by the processor, the captured unstructured broadcast data to a first structured data, the converting comprising detecting an audio component of the captured unstructured broadcast data and converting the audio component to structured text;

receiving, by the processor, a second structured data from a source different from the broadcast source;

capturing, by the processor, a digital image from a source different from the second structured data source, wherein the digital image includes graphical text elements recognizable as text by optical character recognition software;

converting, by the processor, the graphical text elements of the digital image to a third structured data, the third structured data comprising structured text from the graphical text elements;

generating text of contents of each of the first structured data, the second structured data, and the third structured data and storing the generated text on a searchable data storage device;

parsing, by the processor, the stored text by (i) collecting only phrases relevant to a specified field and (ii) grouping phrases recognized as comprising temporal references;

receiving, by the processor, a search phrase and a selection of a particular language from a user;

semantically analyzing, by the processor, the parsed text by ignoring any text not in the particular language;

searching, by the processor, the semantically analyzed text using the received search phrase;

generating, by the processor, search results based on searching the semantically analyzed text; and

providing, by the processor, the search results for communication to the user.

5. The computer program product of claim 4, wherein the method further comprises:

identifying, by the processor, one or more advertisement components of the stored text, wherein the searching is based on the one or more advertisement components.

6. The computer program product of claim 4, wherein the second structured data includes one or more of streaming audio and streaming video.

7. The computer program product of claim 4, wherein the unstructured broadcast data includes one or more of analog audio and analog video having an analog audio component.

8. The computer program product of claim 4, wherein the second structured data includes one or more emails.