Segmenting and interpreting a document, and relocating document fragments to corresponding sections

• US 10,176,164 B2
• Filed: 06/19/2017
• Issued: 01/08/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 02/09/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Alba, Alfredo, Coden, Anni R., Drews, Clemens, Gruhl, Daniel F., Lewis, Neal R., Mendes, Pablo N., Ramakrishnan, Cartic, Terdiman, Joseph F.
• Primary Examiner(s): Paula, Cesar B
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nguyen, Luu-Phuong T
• Application Number:
  US15/627,169
• Publication Number:
  US 20180225277A1
• Time in Patent Office: 568 Days
• Field of Search: 715243
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/22 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3344 using natural language analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/35 Clustering; Classification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/36 Creation of semantic tools, e.g. ontology or thesauri
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/10 Text processing natural language analysis G06F40/20; semantic analysis G06F40/30; processing or translation of natural language G06F40/40
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/103 Formatting, i.e. changing of presentation of documents automatic justification G06F40/189; automatic line break hyphenation G06F40/191
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/106 Display of layout of documents; Previewing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/166 Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/211 Syntactic parsing, e.g. based on context-free grammar [CFG] or unification grammars
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/237 Lexical tools
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/279 Recognition of textual entities
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/284 Lexical analysis, e.g. tokenisation or collocates
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/289 Phrasal analysis, e.g. finite state techniques or chunking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/30 Semantic analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/40 Processing or translation of natural language natural language analysis G06F40/20; semantic analysis G06F40/30
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 15/00 ICT specially adapted for medical reports, e.g. generation or transmission thereof

Abstract

A method comprising receiving an item via a computer input device, comparing the item to a plurality of lexicons using a processor, and determining, using the processor and based upon the comparison, that the item is part of a fragment matching at least one of the plurality of lexicons. The method also comprises storing, using the processor, the fragment in a section of a document determined based on the at least one of the plurality of lexicons, and receiving at least one other item via the computer input device after the fragment is stored in the section.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving a document including an item via a computer input device;

comparing the item to a plurality of lexicons using a processor;

determining, using the processor and based upon the comparison, that the item is part of a fragment matching at least one of the plurality of lexicons;

storing, using the processor, the fragment in a section of the document determined based on the at least one of the plurality of lexicons;

receiving at least one other item via the computer input device after the fragment is stored in the section;

segmenting the document into multiple sections, wherein each of the multiple sections corresponds to a respective section type of multiple section types;

segmenting items in a first section of the multiple sections of the document into multiple fragments, wherein the first section corresponds to a first section type;

determining a section type of each of the multiple fragments in the first section;

determining whether the multiple fragments include fragments that correspond to different section types and that are interspersed among each other in even proportions; and

based on the multiple fragments in the first section including fragments that correspond to different section types and that are interspersed among each other in even proportions;

determining that the fragments that correspond to different section types and that are interspersed among each other in even proportions do not belong in the first section;

generating a new section corresponding to a section type that is different than the multiple section types; and

re-locating the fragments that correspond to different section types and that are interspersed among each other in even proportions to the new section.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining that the at least one other item is part of another fragment matching a lexicon in the plurality of lexicons.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising storing the another fragment in at least one section of the document.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing the document in a hardware storage device.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the item includes at least one of a word, a phrase, a sentence, and a non-alphabetical symbol.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether the multiple fragments include the fragments that correspond to the different section types and that are interspersed among each other in even proportions includes determining whether the fragments that correspond to the different section types and that are interspersed among each other in even proportions are disposed in an alternating fashion.

7. A system, comprising:

an input device configured to receive a document including an item; and

a processor communicably coupled to the input device and configured to;

compare the item to a plurality of lexicons;

determine, based upon the comparison, that the item is part of a fragment matching at least one of the plurality of lexicons;

store the fragment in a section of the document determined based on the at least one of the plurality of lexicons;

receive at least one other item via the computer input device after the fragment is stored in the section;

segment the document into multiple sections, wherein each of the multiple sections corresponds to a respective section type of multiple section types;

segment items in a first section of the multiple sections of the document into multiple fragments, wherein the first section corresponds to a first section type;

determine a section type of each of the multiple fragments in the first section;

determine whether the multiple fragments include fragments that correspond to different section types and that are interspersed among each other in even proportions; and

based on the multiple fragments in the first section including fragments that correspond to different section types and that are interspersed among each other in even proportions;

determine that the fragments that correspond to different section types and that are interspersed among each other in even proportions do not belong in the first section;

generate a new section corresponding to a section type that is different than the multiple section types; and

re-locate the fragments that correspond to different section types and that are interspersed among each other in even proportions to the new section.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the processor is further configured to determine that the at least one other item is part of another fragment matching a lexicon in the plurality of lexicons.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the processor is further configured to store the another fragment in at least one section of the document.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein the processor is further configured to store the document in a hardware storage device.

11. The system of claim 7, wherein the item includes at least one of a word, a phrase, a sentence, and a non-alphabetical symbol.

12. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by a processor to cause the processor to:

receive a document including an item via a computer input device;

compare the item to a plurality of lexicons using a processor;

determine, using the processor and based upon the comparison, that the item is part of a fragment matching at least one of the plurality of lexicons;

store, using the processor, the fragment in a section of the document determined based on the at least one of the plurality of lexicons;

receive at least one other item via the computer input device after the fragment is stored in the section;

segment the document into multiple sections, wherein each of the multiple sections corresponds to a respective section type of multiple section types;

segment items in a first section of the multiple sections of the document into multiple fragments, wherein the first section corresponds to a first section type;

determine a section type of each of the multiple fragments in the first section;

determine whether the multiple fragments include fragments that correspond to different section types and that are interspersed among each other in even proportions; and

based on the multiple fragments in the first section including fragments that correspond to different section types and that are interspersed among each other in even proportions;

determine that the fragments that correspond to different section types and that are interspersed among each other in even proportions do not belong in the first section;

generate a new section corresponding to a section type that corresponds to a section type that is different than the multiple section types; and

re-locate the fragments that correspond to different section types and that are interspersed among each other in even proportions to the new section.

13. The computer program product of claim 12, wherein the program instructions are further executable to cause the processor to determine that the at least one other item is part of another fragment matching a lexicon in the plurality of lexicons.

14. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the program instructions are further executable to cause the processor to store the another fragment in at least one section of the document.

15. The computer program product of claim 12, wherein the program instructions are further executable to cause the processor to store the document in a hardware storage device.

16. The computer program product of claim 12, wherein the item includes at least one of a word, a phrase, a sentence, and a non-alphabetical symbol.