Time-critical filtering of information using domain ontologies

• US 20060123027A1
• Filed: 02/09/2004
• Published: 06/08/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 02/10/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fraunhofer Gesellschaft Zur Foerderung Der Angewandten Forsching E.V.
• Original Assignee: Fraunhofer Gesellschaft Zur Foerderung Der Angewandten Forsching E.V.
• Inventors: Kohlhammer, Joern, Zeltzer, David Louis
• Granted Patent: US 8,214,378 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/367 Ontology

Abstract

An ontology that is used to determine relationships between instances of objects having types. The ontology is made from a text file containing a DAML+OIL description of the ontology and includes a set of ontology objects and an accelerator that accelerates determination of the relationships. The accelerator is implemented using database tables and indexes. The ontology may be used as a data filter. A decision-centered visualization system uses the ontology to relate data items contained in event instances to task instances and to determine for a given task instance what portion of the data in the data item should be provided for display by a given task instance.

Claims

1. An ontology accessible to a data processing system, the ontology being used to determine relationships between instances of objects having types and the ontology comprising:

a set of ontology objects, the set of ontology objects describing the types and relationships there between; and

an accelerator that accelerates determination of a set of types that are relevant to a particular type.

2. The ontology set forth in claim 1 wherein:

the relationships between the types include super- and subclass relationships.

3. The ontology set forth in any one of claims 1 through 2 wherein:

the accelerator further accelerates location of the ontology objects for the types belonging to the set of relevant types.

4. The ontology set forth in any of claims 1 through 2 further comprising:

an ontology file accessible to the data processing system, the data processing system generating the set of ontology objects from the ontology file.

5. The ontology set forth in claim 4 wherein:

the computer system is able to access the ontology objects more rapidly than the ontology file.

6. The ontology set forth in claim 4 wherein:

the data processing system further generates the accelerator from the ontology file.

7. The ontology set forth in any one of claims 1 through 6 wherein:

the accelerator includes tables in a database, the tables specifying type relationships from which the set of relevant types may be determined.

8. The ontology set forth in claim 7 wherein:

the tables further specify information from which the ontology objects for the types belonging to the set of relevant types may be located.

9. The ontology set forth in claim 7 wherein:

the accelerator further includes indexes on the tables, the indexes accelerating determination of the set of relevant types in the database.

10. A data filter in a data processing system, the data filter performing a filtering operation which filters information belonging to an instance of an information item which belongs to an information item type of a plurality of types as required for a plurality of instances of contexts, the instances of the contexts belonging to context types of the plurality and the data filter comprising:

the ontology set forth in any one of claims 1 through 9 wherein the instances of objects are the instance of an information item and the instances of contexts, the particular type is the information object type, and the set of types that are relevant are context types.

11. A visualization system for producing a visualization, information relating to a task being performed in the visualization system being displayed in the visualization in response to occurrence of an event in the visualization system, the displayed information having as its source a data item instance in an event instance representing the event and being selected from the data item instance as determined by a task instance representing the task and the visualization system having the improvement comprising:

the ontology set forth in any one of claims 1 through 9 wherein the instances of objects are the data item instance and the task instance, the particular type is the type of the data item instance, and the set of types includes the type of the task instance and

the type of the task instance and the type of the data item instance are applied to the ontology to determine what information is to be selected from the data item instance.

12. The visualization system set forth in claim 11 wherein:

the data item instance is contained in an event instance;

the set of types further includes the type of the event instance; and

the type of the event instance is applied to the ontology in addition to the type of the task instance and the type of the data item instance.

13. The visualization system set forth in claim 12 wherein:

the relationships include priority relationships between event types and task types; and

the displayed information is further selected from the data item instance as determined by any priority relationship between the event type and the task type.

14. The visualization system set forth in claim 12 wherein:

the event instances include event instances resulting from interaction of a user with the visualization system.

15. A visualization system for producing a visualization, information relating to a task being performed in the visualization system being displayed in the visualization in response to occurrence of an event in the visualization system, the displayed information having as its source a data item instance in an event instance representing the event and being selected from the data item instance as determined by a task instance representing the task and the visualization system having the improvement comprising:

a set of ontology objects accessible to the visualization system, the set of ontology objects describing a plurality of types including types to which the data item instance and the task instance belong and relationships between types belonging to the plurality, the type of the task instance and the type of the data item instance being applied to the ontology to determine what information is to be selected from the data item instance.