INTENTIONAL-STANCE CHARACTERIZATION OF A GENERAL CONTENT STREAM OR REPOSITORY

• US 20070073531A1
• Filed: 10/30/2006
• Published: 03/29/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/05/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: RPX Corporation
• Original Assignee: Novell Incorporated (Open Text Corporation)
• Inventors: Carter, Stephen, Jensen, Delos
• Granted Patent: US 7,562,011 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/4
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/353 into predefined classes
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99936 Pattern matching access

Abstract

Starting with a dictionary including concepts and chains, a subset of the chains is selected as intentional stance basis chains (ISBCs). Concepts in the dictionary are chosen and mapped to state vectors using the ISBCs. The state vectors are assembled into a template, and an action and threshold distance are assigned to the template. When an impact summary is generated for a content source, the distance between the impact summary and the template is measured. If the distance is less than the threshold distance associated with the action for the template, the action is performed.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for building a template specifying an emotional response to a content stream, the method comprising:

selecting a dictionary, the dictionary including a plurality of concepts to form a directed set, wherein only one concept is a maximal element;

establishing directed links between pairs of concepts in the directed set, the directed links defining “

is a”

relationships between the concepts in the pairs of concepts, so that each concept is either a source or a sink of at least one directed link;

establishing intentional stance basis chains in the directed set from the maximal element to each concept along the directed links, where for each pair of concepts in each intentional stance basis chain, one of the pair of concepts is a lineal ancestor of the other of the pair of concepts;

selecting a subset of the intentional stance basis chains to form a basis;

selecting at least one concept in the dictionary;

creating a state vector in a topological vector space corresponding to each selected concept, wherein each state vector in the topological vector space includes as at least one measure of how concretely the corresponding selected concept is represented in each intentional stance basis chain in the basis;

assembling the state vectors in the topological vector space into a template; and

associating an action with the template.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein associating an action includes assigning a threshold distance to the action so that the action will be performed if the content stream is within the threshold distance of the template.

3. A method according to claim 2, wherein:

associating an action includes associating a plurality of actions with the template; and

assigning a threshold distance includes assigning a unique threshold distance to each associated action so that the action will be performed if the content stream is within the assigned threshold distance of the template.

4. A method according to claim 1, wherein associating an action includes associating a plurality of actions to be performed if the content stream is within one of a plurality of threshold distances of the template, each of the associated actions to be performed if the content stream is within a unique range of distances of the template.

5. A method according to claim 1, the method further comprising constructing a centroid vector for the template from the state vectors.

16. A method according to claim 2, further comprising performing the action if the content stream is less than the threshold distance from the template.

17. A method according to claim 16, wherein the action is drawn from a set including highlighting content for a reader, e-mailing information to the reader, preparing a letter to another, preparing a petition for circulation, performing a document search request, refining a query by a user, and answering a question from the user.

18. A method according to claim 2, wherein assigning a threshold distance to the action includes assigning a threshold distance to the action of refining a query by a user so that the action will be performed if the content stream is within the threshold distance of the template.

19. A method according to claim 2, wherein assigning a threshold distance to the action includes assigning a threshold distance to the action of answering a question from the user so that the action will be performed if the content stream is within the threshold distance of the template.

20. A method according to claim 2, wherein assigning a threshold distance to the action includes assigning a threshold distance to the action of highlighting content for a reader so that the action will be performed if the content stream is within the threshold distance of the template.

6. A computer-implemented method for comparing a template with a content stream to determine whether the content stream provokes an emotion response, the method comprising:

selecting a dictionary, the dictionary including a plurality of concepts to form a directed set, wherein only one concept is a maximal element;

establishing directed links between pairs of concepts in the directed set, the directed links defining “

is a”

relationships between the concepts in the pairs of concepts, so that each concept is either a source or a sink of at least one directed link;

establishing intentional stance basis chains in the directed set from the maximal element to each concept along the directed links, where for each pair of concepts in each intentional stance basis chain, one of the pair of concepts is a lineal ancestor of the other of the pair of concepts;

selecting a subset of the intentional stance basis chains to form a basis;

selecting a plurality of concepts in the dictionary;

creating a state vector in a topological vector space corresponding to each selected concept, wherein each state vector in the topological vector space includes a measure of how concretely the corresponding selected concept is represented in each intentional stance basis chain in the basis;

assembling the state vectors in the topological vector space into a template;

associating an action with the template;

constructing an impact summary for the content stream, the impact summary including a plurality of state vectors; and

comparing the impact summary with the template.

7. A method according to claim 6, wherein comparing the impact summary with the template includes measuring a distance between the impact summary and the template.

8. A method according to claim 7, wherein measuring a distance includes performing a topological vector space transformation on the impact summary.

9. A method according to claim 7, the method further comprising performing the action associated with the template if the distance between the impact summary and the template is less than the threshold distance of the template.

10. A method according to claim 7, wherein measuring a distance includes locating a centroid vector for each of the template and the impact summary.

11. A method according to claim 10, wherein measuring a distance further includes measuring an angle between the template centroid vector and the impact summary centroid vector.

12. A method according to claim 7, wherein measuring a distance includes measuring a Hausdorff distance between the impact summary and the template.

13. A method according to claim 6, wherein constructing an impact summary includes iteratively constructing the impact summary for the content stream to track changes in the content stream.

14. A method according to claim 6, wherein constructing an impact summary includes:

selecting a second plurality of concepts in the dictionary;

creating a second state vector in a topological vector space for each second selected concept, wherein each second state vector includes a measure of how concretely the second selected concept is represented in each chain in the basis; and

assembling the second state vectors into the impact summary.

15. A method according to claim 8, wherein constructing an impact summary includes:

selecting a second dictionary, the second dictionary including a second plurality of concepts to form a second directed set, wherein only one second concept is a second maximal element;

establishing second directed links between pairs of second concepts in the second directed set, the second directed links defining “

is a”

relationships between the second concepts in the pairs of second concepts, so that each second concept is either a source or a sink of at least second one directed link;

establishing second intentional stance basis chains in the second directed set from the second maximal element to each second concept along the second directed links, where for each pair of second concepts in each second intentional stance basis chain, one of the pair of second concepts is a lineal ancestor of the other of the pair of second concepts;

selecting a second subset of the second intentional stance basis chains to form a second basis;

selecting a plurality of second concepts in the dictionary;

creating a second state vector in a second topological vector space corresponding to each selected second concept, wherein each second state vector in the second topological vector space includes a measure of how concretely the corresponding second concept is represented in each second intentional stance basis chain in the second basis; and

assembling the second state vectors into the impact summary.