Synthesizing information-bearing content from multiple channels

• US 20030135488A1
• Filed: 01/11/2002
• Published: 07/17/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 01/11/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Kraft, Reiner, Amir, Arnon, Denesuk, Matthew, Blanchard, Brian K., Ashour, Gal
• Granted Patent: US 7,117,200 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/3
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/48 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/913 Multimedia
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99936 Pattern matching access

Abstract

A computing system and method receive a query; separate a plurality of information sources into individual elements of content (EOC); tag each EOC with metadata that indicate source, date, and other relevant information; pattern match each EOC; calculate the distance function from every EOC to every other EOC; and output EOC to a set of virtual buffers (404) containing appropriately related EOC less than a given distance value. The method further creates virtual summary buffers (406); then concatenates the EOC in each virtual buffer (404); applies a comparative analysis filter (318) to remove redundant sub-elements; and presents the results as summary digests (408).

Claims

1. A method comprising the steps of:

receiving a query;

separating a plurality of information sources into individual elements of content (EOC);

tagging each EOC with metadata;

pattern matching each EOC;

calculating the distance function from every EOC to every other EOC; and

providing the EOC to a set of virtual buffers, each EOC being provided to one of the set of virtual buffers that is pre-defined to contain EOC with less than a given distance value between each other.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of information sources comprises a plurality of content channels.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of information sources comprises a plurality of related stories delivered on a single channel at different times.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the query is received via a user interface.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the query is received via an Internet browser.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the query is received via an agent for pushing relevant information to a user based on a user profile.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of information sources comprises at least one of:

Internet-based, intra-net based, and other online forms of news and information resources;

video broadcasts;

radio broadcasts;

press release forums; and

financial forums.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the EOC comprise at least one of:

text;

video;

audio; and

digital media.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of creating virtual summary buffers.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

concatenating the EOC in each virtual buffer;

applying a comparative analysis filter to remove redundant sub-elements;

synthesizing summary digests by extracting context-preserving EOC, the EOC having a distance function value less than a predetermined value; and

presenting the results as summary digests.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the summary digests comprises color-coded sub-elements of content based on the number of EOC containing that particular sub-element.

12. A system comprising:

a digest synthesizing application, wherein the digest synthesizing application, in response to receiving a query, separates a plurality of information sources into individual elements of content (EOC), tags each EOC with metadata, pattern matches each EOC, and calculates the distance function from every EOC to every other EOC;

a result set manager, communicatively coupled to the digest synthesizing application, for providing EOC to a result set; and

a result set, communicatively coupled to the result set manager, comprising a set of virtual buffers, each EOC being provided to one of the set of virtual buffers that is pre-defined to contain EOC with less than a given distance value between each other.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the digest synthesizing application comprises:

a query handler, for receiving a query;

an input filter, communicatively coupled to the query handler, for separating a plurality of information sources into individual elements of content (EOC);

a distance calculator, communicatively coupled to the input filter, for calculating the distance function from every EOC to every other EOC; and

a pattern-matching filter, communicatively coupled to the distance calculator, for pattern matching each EOC.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the digest synthesizing application further comprises:

a comparative analysis filter, communicatively coupled to the pattern-matching filter, for removing redundant sub-elements.

15. The system of claim 12, further comprising:

a user interface; and

a user interface/event manager, communicatively coupled to the user interface and the digest synthesizing application, for receiving a user query from the user interface and presenting the result set to the user interface.

16. The system of claim 12, further comprising an application programming interface, communicatively coupled to the digest synthesizing application, for communicating with other applications.

17. The system of claim 12, wherein the result set comprises:

a set of tagged EOC;

a set of virtual buffers, communicatively coupled to the set of tagged EOC; and

a set of summary digests, communicatively coupled to the set of virtual buffers.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the result set further comprises a set of virtual summary buffers.

19. An apparatus comprising:

a digest synthesizing application, wherein the digest synthesizing application, in response to receiving a query, separates a plurality of information sources into individual elements of content (EOC), tags each EOC with metadata, pattern matches each EOC, and calculates the distance function from every EOC to every other EOC;

a result set manager, communicatively coupled to the digest synthesizing application, for outputting EOC to a result set; and

a result set, communicatively coupled to the result set manager, comprising a set of virtual buffers for storing EOC less than a given distance value.

20. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the digest synthesizing application comprises:

a query handler, for receiving a query;

an input filter, communicatively coupled to the query handler, for separating a plurality of information sources into individual elements of content (EOC);

a distance calculator, communicatively coupled to the input filter, for calculating the distance function from every EOC to every other EOC; and

a pattern-matching filter, communicatively coupled to the distance calculator, for pattern matching each EOC.

21. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the digest synthesizing application further comprises:

a comparative analysis filter, communicatively coupled to the pattern-matching filter, for removing redundant sub-elements.

22. The apparatus of claim 19, further comprising:

a user interface; and

a user interface/event manager, communicatively coupled to the user interface and the digest synthesizing application, for receiving a user query from the user interface and presenting the result set to the user interface.

23. The apparatus of claim 19, further comprising an application programming interface, communicatively coupled to the digest synthesizing application, for communicating with other applications.

24. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the result set comprises:

a set of tagged EOC;

a set of virtual buffers, communicatively coupled to the set of tagged EOC; and

a set of summary digests, communicatively coupled to the set of virtual buffers.

25. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein the result set further comprises a set of virtual summary buffers.

26. A computer readable medium including computer instructions for driving a digest synthesizing application, the computer instructions comprising instructions for:

receiving a query;

separating a plurality of information sources into individual elements of content (EOC);

tagging each EOC with metadata;

pattern matching each EOC;

calculating the distance function from every EOC to every other EOC; and

providing EOC to a set of virtual buffers, each EOC being provided to one of the set of virtual buffers that is pre-defined to contain EOC with less than a given distance value between each other.

27. The computer readable medium of claim 26, wherein the plurality of information sources comprises a plurality of content channels.

28. The computer readable medium of claim 26, wherein the plurality of information sources comprises a plurality of related stories delivered on a single channel at different times.

29. The computer readable medium of claim 26, wherein the query is received via a user interface.

30. The computer readable medium of claim 26, wherein the query is received via an Internet browser.

31. The computer readable medium of claim 26, wherein the query is received via an agent for pushing relevant information to a user based on a user profile.

32. The computer readable medium of claim 26, wherein the plurality of information sources comprises at least one of:

Internet-based, intra-net based, and other online forms of news and information resources;

video broadcasts;

radio broadcasts;

press release forums; and

financial forums.

33. The computer readable medium of claim 26, wherein the EOC comprise at least one of:

text;

video;

audio; and

digital media.

34. The computer readable medium of claim 26, further comprising computer instructions for a step of creating virtual summary buffers.

35. The computer readable medium of claim 26, further comprising computer instructions for the steps of:

concatenating the EOC in each virtual buffer;

applying a comparative analysis filter to remove redundant sub-elements;

synthesizing summary digests by extracting context-preserving EOC, the EOC having a distance function value less than a predetermined value; and

presenting the results as summary digests.

36. The computer readable medium of claim 35, wherein the summary digests comprises color-coded sub-elements of content based on the number of EOC containing that particular sub-element.