Method and system for interpreting information communicated in disparate dialects

• US 20030204391A1
• Filed: 04/30/2003
• Published: 10/30/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2002
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Crane Merchandising Systems Incorporated (Crane Company)
• Original Assignee: Isochron Data Corporation (Isochron Data Corp /Harris/)
• Inventors: Dinsmore, John D., Budet, Jaime L., May, James A.
• Application Number:
  US10/426,840
• Publication Number:
  US 20030204391A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/8
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/258 Data format conversion from or to a database

Abstract

A method and system is provided for the interpretation of information communicated in disparate dialects. The method and system includes a general parser receiving audit reports having data in multiple dialects including unknown dialects. An interpretation module extracts the data from the audit reports and interprets the data while a validation module analyzes the results of the interpretation. For unknown dialects, the general parser either marks an audit report as having an unknown dialect or invokes the learning module which acquires the unknown dialect. The learning module creates a provisional interpretation module and a provisional validation module for the unknown dialect using the data in the unknown dialect audit report. The learning module tests the provisional interpretation module and provisional validation module with additional audit reports having the same dialect as the audit report used to create them and with successful testing are assumed to be correct.

Claims

1. A method for interpreting information communicated in multiple dialects, the method comprising:

receiving a plurality of audit reports having data in multiple dialects;

marking each audit report having a dialect unknown to a plurality of interpretation modules;

interpreting the plurality of audit reports using the plurality of interpretation modules for respective known dialects; and

validating the plurality of audit reports having a known dialect.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising storing data from the audit reports having the unknown dialect in an interpretation error table.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving the audit reports comprises determining which interpretation module has a dialect corresponding with the dialect of the audit reports.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising storing the data from the audit reports in a database.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein validating the audit reports comprises performing a plurality of validation tests on the audit reports.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein validating the audit reports comprises updating the database with data from the audit report and a plurality of validation results when the audit report passes the validation tests.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein validating the audit report comprises storing the data in the audit reports in a validation error table associated when the audit report fails the validation tests.

8. A method for automated dialect acquisition of disparate dialects, the method comprising:

receiving an audit report having data in an unknown dialect;

determining that the audit report does not belong in any one of a plurality of known interpretation modules corresponding with respective known dialects;

creating a provisional interpretation module;

determining that the audit report does not belong in any one of a plurality of known validation modules;

creating a provisional validation module;

testing the provisional interpretation module; and

testing the provisional validation module.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein determining that the audit report does not belong in any one of a plurality of known interpretation modules comprises examining the audit report to attempt to identify the unknown dialect.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein determining that the audit report does not belong in any one of a plurality of known interpretation modules comprises attempting to match the audit report with respective known dialects of the known interpretation modules.

11. The method of claim 8 wherein creating a provisional interpretation module comprises;

examining the audit report; and

deciding the form for the provisional interpretation module.

12. The method of claim 8 wherein determining that the audit report does not belong in any one of a plurality of known validation modules comprises testing the audit report against the respective known dialects of the known validation modules.

13. The method of claim 8 wherein creating a provisional validation module comprises performing a series of validation tests on the audit report.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the series of validation tests comprise a finite number of tests returning pass or fail answers.

15. The method of claim 13 wherein creating the provisional validation module comprises determining which validation tests the audit report passes and which validation tests the audit report fails.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein creating the provisional validation module comprises:

turning off all the tests the audit report fails; and

turning on all the tests the audit reports passes.

17. The method of claim 8 wherein testing the provisional interpretation module comprises determining if the provisional interpretation module returns semantically reasonable values.

18. The method of claim 8 wherein testing the provisional validation module comprises using the provisional validation module to analyze additional audit reports with dialects the same as the dialect of the audit report used to create the provisional validation module.

19. A system for interpreting information communicated in multiple dialects which are known and unknown by the system, the system comprising:

a plurality of audit reports in multiple dialects;

a general parser operable to receive the audit reports and mark the audit reports having an unknown dialect;

a plurality of interpretation modules associated with the general parser, the interpretation modules operable to extract data from the audit reports with known dialects; and

a plurality of validation modules associated with the general parser, the validation modules operable to analyze the audit reports with known dialects.

20. The system of claim 19 wherein the audit reports comprise DEX records.

21. The system of claim 19 wherein the general parser identifies respective interpretation modules corresponding with the dialect of each audit report.

22. The system of claim 19 wherein the general parser identifies respective validation modules corresponding with the dialect of each audit report.

23. The system of claim 19 wherein each interpretation module corresponds to a respective dialect.

24. The system of claim 19 wherein each validation module corresponds to a respective dialect.

25. The system of claim 19 wherein the validation modules perform a plurality of validation tests on the audit reports.

26. The system of claim 25 wherein the validation tests comprise a finite number of tests asking pass and fail questions.

27. The system of claim 19 further comprising a network operations center associated with the general parser, interpretation modules, and validation modules, the network operations center including a database, a validation error table, and an interpretation error table, the network operations center operable to store within the database the data from the audit reports.

28. A system for automated dialect acquisition of disparate dialects, the system comprising:

an audit report having data in an unknown dialect;

a general parser associated with the audit report, the general parser operable to receive the audit report;

a plurality of known interpretation modules associated with the general parser, the known interpretation modules operable to extract data from the audit report;

a plurality of known validation modules associated with the general parser, the known validation module operable to analyze the audit report; and

a learning module associated with the general parser, the learning module operable to create a provisional interpretation module and a provisional validation module based upon the data in the audit report.

29. The system of claim 28 wherein the audit report comprises a DEX record.

30. The system of claim 28 wherein the general parser determines if the audit report belongs in any of the known interpretation modules.

31. The system of claim 28 wherein the general parser determines if the audit report belongs in any of the known validation modules.

32. The system of claim 28 wherein the general parser transfers to the provisional interpretation module additional audit reports with a dialect the same as the dialect of the audit report used to create the provisional interpretation module.

33. The system of claim 28 wherein the learning module creates the provisional interpretation module by examining the audit report and making a guess as to an interpretation module for the unknown dialect.

34. The system of claim 28 wherein the learning module creates the provisional validation module by performing a plurality of validation tests on the data in the audit report.

35. The system of claim 34 wherein the validation tests comprise a finite number of test questions returning pass or fail answers.

36. The system of claim 34 wherein the learning module assumes that the provisional validation module will pass all the validation tests and performs all the validation tests on the data from the audit report.

37. The system of claim 34 wherein the learning module determines which validation tests the audit reports passes and fails, turns off the validation tests the audit report fails, and turns on the validation tests the audit report passes.

38. The system of claim 28 wherein the learning module tests the provisional interpretation module to determine if the provisional interpretation module returns semantically reasonable values for audit reports having the same dialect.

39. The system of claim 28 wherein the provisional interpretation module remains provisional until the provisional interpretation module returns semantically reasonable values for audit reports having the same dialect.

40. The system of claim 28 wherein the provisional validation module remains provisional until the provisional validation module passes a set number of audit reports having the same dialect as the dialect of the audit report used to create the provisional validation module.