Method and system for supporting symbolic serendipity

• US 20050120015A1
• Filed: 11/12/2004
• Published: 06/02/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 11/14/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Antonio Costa Dias De Figueiredo, Jose Manuel Marum Campos
• Original Assignee: Antonio Costa Dias De Figueiredo, Jose Manuel Marum Campos
• Inventors: Marum Campos, Jose Manuel, Costa Dias De Figueiredo, Antonio
• Granted Patent: US 7,319,998 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/93 Document management systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 20/00 Machine learning
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99934 Query formulation, input preparation, or translation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99936 Pattern matching access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

The present invention provides a method and system for supporting serendipity and pseudo-serendipity. A collection of profiles are generated to model the user'"'"'s worldview. A collection of shadow profiles are generated to model divergent knowledge based on the user'"'"'s profiles and external information or knowledge sources. A collection of items are retrieved from the profiles and used to perform a deliberate search for laterality. The initial and lateral items are merged into a search string. The search string is used to perform a search or wandering process that is aware of potential serendipitous stimuli in an information space. The discovered, unexpected, unsought, unforeseen stimuli are intended to be subsequently presented to the user.

Claims

1. A computer system for supporting serendipitous examination of a body of information comprising:

a profile management module for acquiring information related to each user of the system indicative of a world view of each user and developing a profile of each user based on a classification of each user'"'"'s world view,

a divergence module for acquiring lateral concepts from outside knowledge sources related to the profile of each user and storing the lateral concepts in a shadow profile for each user, and

a stimuli generation module for retrieving the lateral concepts from any given shadow profile that are related to a given query of an information space by a given user to present potentially serendipitous data for use by the user in combination with any information gained from the information space.

2. A method for supporting serendipity and pseudo-serendipity during the examination of a body of information using a computer under the control of a user, the method comprising the steps of:

developing a user profile of each user of the computer by acquiring information related to each user indicative of a world view of each user from the cognitive choices made by each user,

acquiring lateral concepts from outside knowledge sources related to the profile of each user and storing the lateral concepts in a shadow profile related to each user, and

responding to a given query of an information space by a given user by presenting potentially serendipitous data for consideration by the user in the form of one or more lateral concepts retrieved from any shadow profile in conjunction with or as a substitute for any information from the information space responsive to the query.

3. A computer-readable program storage device, having a set of program instructions physically embodied thereon, executable by a computer, to perform a method for supporting serendipity and pseudo-serendipity during the examination of a body of information using a computer under the control of a user, the method comprising the steps of:

developing a body of data reflecting a user profile of each user of the computer by acquiring information related to each user indicative of a world view of each user from the cognitive choices made by each user,

acquiring lateral concepts from outside knowledge sources related to the profile of each user and storing the lateral concepts in a shadow profile related to each user, and

responding to a given query of an information space by a given user by retrieving from any shadow profile any information laterally related to the query,

the program instructions including a selecting program for selecting the shadow profile to be examined for lateral concepts and a merging program for developing string search criteria used to perform a search in an information space for potentially serendipitous information for consideration by the user conforming generally to the user'"'"'s inquiry and sagacity as indicated by the user profile.