System and method for interactive multi-dimensional visual representation of information content and properties

• US 20060116994A1
• Filed: 11/30/2005
• Published: 06/01/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Uncharted Software, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Uncharted Software, Inc.
• Inventors: Wright, William, Cort, Brian, Jonker, David, Proulx, Pascale, Schroh, David, Skaburskis, Alex
• Granted Patent: US 8,131,779 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/338 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/34 Browsing; Visualisation therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/40 of multimedia data, e.g. slideshows comprising image and additional audio data retrieval of still image data G06F16/50; retrieval of audio data G06F16/60; retrieval of video data G06F16/70
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/02 Knowledge representation; Symbolic representation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/04 Forecasting or optimisation specially adapted for administrative or management purposes, e.g. linear programming or "cutting stock problem" market predictions or forecasting for commercial activities G06Q30/0202

Abstract

A system and method of information retrieval and triage for information analysis provides an for interactive multi-dimensional and linked visual representation of information content and properties. A query interface plans and obtains result sets. A dimension interface specifies dimensions with which to categorize the result sets. Links among results of a result set or results of different sets are automatically generated for linked selection viewing. Entities may be extracted and viewed and entity relations determined to establish further links and dimensions. Properties encoded in representations (e.g. icons) of the results in the multidimensional views maximizes display density. Multiple queries may be performed and compared. An integrated browser component responsive to the links is provided for viewing documents. Documents and other information from the result set may be used in an analysis component providing a space for visual linking, to arrange the information in the space while maintaining links automatically.

Claims

1. A system for retrieving and visualizing information comprising:

a query component configured to plan and execute a query to obtain a result set from a one of a plurality of information sources coupled to communicate with the system;

a dimension component configured to specify dimensions with which to categorize the result set, said dimensions comprising at least one of dimensions pre-defined for the user, dimensions defined by a user, and dimensions defined automatically;

a link selection component configured to determine links among results of the result set and the query, and

a user interface component providing a graphical user interface configured to visualise the query, result set and links in multi-dimensional linked views, each multi-dimensional linked view categorizing the result set in accordance with a particular dimension associated with the respective multi-dimensional linked view.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the user interface is configured to visualise the query in a query view and the dimensions in a dimension view.

3. The system of claim 1 comprising a dimension building component to configure dimension definitions in accordance with user input received via said user interface.

4. The system of claim 3 wherein the dimension building component is coupled to communicate with at least one ontological service for receiving an ontology with which to configure a dimension definition.

5. The system of claim 3 wherein the dimension building component is coupled to communicate with at least one document clustering service for receiving categories with which to configure a dimension definition, said clustering service generating the categories in accordance with semantic analysis of one or more documents provided to the service to generate the categories.

6. The system component of claim 1 wherein said query component is configured to receive a dimension and to define a query in accordance with the dimension.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein said query component is configured to plan and execute queries for entities and entity relations using at least one entity information source coupled to the system, said linking component determining entity relation links among the results of the result set in accordance with the entities.

8. The system of claim 7 comprising a dimension building component to define dimensions, said dimension building component configured to receive entities using said user interface to configure a dimension definition for exploring entity relations.

9. The system of claim 7 wherein the user interface visualizes the entities and associated entity relations in an entities view and entity relation links in the multi-dimensional linked views.

10. The system of claim 9 wherein, in response to a selection of some of the results of a result set, the user interface is configured to visualize in the entities view each of the entities located in the some of the results by name and indicating a frequency of occurrence within the some of the results.

11. The system of claim 9 wherein the user interface is further configured to visualize each of the entities not located in the some of the results with a histogram representing a frequency of occurrence in the whole result set.

12. The system of claim 1 comprising a properties component configured to determine characterizing properties for each result of the result set in accordance with at least one of metadata and a content of a document associated with a result and wherein the user interface is configured to encode at least some of the properties in an icon representing the result in the visualization of the result set, graphically maximizing display density to enable a user to rapidly scan documents without opening and reading the documents.

13. The system of claim 1 wherein the query component is configured to plan and execute a plurality of queries to obtain respective result sets, wherein said dimension component configured to provide dimensions with which to characterize any of the result sets, wherein said link selection component is configured to further determine links between results of different result sets and wherein said user interface is configured to visualize the queries, results sets and links in said multi-dimensional views selectively in accordance with user input.

14. The system of claim 1 wherein the user interface and link selection component are adapted to receive a selection of one or more results visualized in a first multi-dimensional linked view and highlight the one or more results visualized in any other multi-dimensional linked view.

15. The system of claim 1 comprising a document browser component configured to view a document associated with a result of the result sets said browser adapted to visualize at least some of the links determined by the link component.

16. The system of claim 1 comprising an integrated analysis component for analyzing the result set in a spare for arranging information in a spatial arrangement for visual thinking.

17. The system of claim 15 wherein said user interface and link selection component cooperate with the analysis component to provide documents or portions thereof associated with the results of the result set for visualizing in view of the space, said documents or portions thereof maintaining links to the result set such that a selection of a document or portion in a view of the analysis components highlights the corresponding visualization of the document or portion in the multi-dimensional linked views.

18. The system of claim 1 wherein the system is adapted to persist the result set and links for subsequent visualisation.

19. The system of claim 1 wherein the system is configured to monitor user activity and publish the activity to a Web service using a protocol.