System for improving the performance of information retrieval-type tasks by identifying the relations of constituents

• US 20050125404A1
• Filed: 11/02/2004
• Published: 06/09/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 06/18/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Suzuki, Hisami, Corston-Oliver, Simon H., Dolan, William B.
• Granted Patent: US 7,299,238 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B42D 15/00 Printed matter of special format or style not otherwise provided for
• CPC Class Codes: B42D 15/0053 Forms specially designed for commercial use, e.g. bills, receipts, offer or order sheets, coupons
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3344 using natural language analysis
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/917 Text
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/954 Relational
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/956 Hierarchical
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99932 Access augmentation or optimizing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99934 Query formulation, input preparation, or translation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99935 Query augmenting and refining, e.g. inexact access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99936 Pattern matching access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99942 Manipulating data structure, e.g. compression, compaction, compilation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99944 Object-oriented database structure
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

A system is utilized for determining a relationship between first and second textual inputs. The system identifies constituents in the first textual input, having predetermined characteristics indicative of usefulness in determining the relationship. The relationship is then determined based on the constituents identified. The constituents can be eliminated from the first textual input, weighted in the first textual input, or simply annotated in one of a variety of ways.

Claims

1. A computer readable medium storing instructions which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform a method of determining a relationship between first and second textual inputs, the method comprising:

analyzing the first textual input to obtain relations of constituents thereof;

determining a relative importance of the constituents in determining the relationship between the first and second textual inputs based on the relations obtained; and

determining the relationship between the first and second textual inputs based on the constituents and the relative importance of the constituents.

2. The computer readable medium of claim 1 wherein the method further comprises:

obtaining a threshold importance and wherein determining the relationship comprises determining the relationship based only on constituents having a relative importance above the threshold importance.

3. The computer readable medium of claim 1 wherein the method further comprises:

assigning a weighting value to each constituent based on the relative importance corresponding to each constituent, and wherein determining the relationship comprises determining the relationship based on the weighting values associated with the constituents.

4. The computer readable medium of claim 1 wherein the first textual input comprises a document and the second textual input comprises a query and wherein determining the relationship between the first and second textual inputs comprises determining similarity in meaning between the document and the query.

5. The computer readable medium of claim 1 wherein the first and second textual inputs each comprise documents and wherein determining the relationship comprises determining a similarity in meaning between the documents.

6. The computer readable medium of claim 5 wherein determining the relationship further comprises determining whether the first and second textual inputs are to be clustered in a logical cluster based on the similarity in meaning between the first and second documents.

7. The computer readable medium of claim 1 wherein the analyzing step comprises:

obtaining case information corresponding to the constituents in the first textual input.

8. The computer readable medium of claim 7 wherein determining a relative importance comprises:

determining a relative importance of the constituents based on the corresponding case information.

9. The computer readable medium of claim 1 wherein the analyzing step comprises:

obtaining grammatical relations corresponding to the constituents in the first textual input.

10. The computer readable medium of claim 9 wherein determining a relative importance comprises:

determining a relative importance of the constituents based on the corresponding grammatical relations.