Adaptive grouping in a file network

• US 20070239712A1
• Filed: 03/30/2006
• Published: 10/11/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Chen, Zheng, Zhang, Benyu, Li, Lei, Wang, Jian, Lin, Chenxi, Liu, Qiaoling
• Granted Patent: US 7,634,471 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/156 Query results presentation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/164 File meta data generation
• 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 707/99937 Sorting
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99938 Concurrency, e.g. lock management in shared database

Abstract

Extraction of semantic information and the generation of semantic attributes allows for improved organization and management of data. Semantic attributes are automatically generated and eliminate the need for manual entry of attribute information. A semantic file network may further be constructed based on similarities between files that are based on the semantic attribute information. Semantic links representing a semantic relationship may be built between similar or relevant files. In addition, user operations and user operation patterns may also be considered in building the file network. Semantic attributes and information may further facilitate browsing the file systems as well as improve the accuracy and speed of queries.

Claims

1. A computer readable medium storing computer readable instructions that, when executed, perform a method for adaptively grouping results of a semantic query, the method comprising the steps of:

identifying a plurality of results associated with a semantic query;

receiving a user selection corresponding to one or more attributes;

determining whether the one or more attributes of a first result of the plurality of results matches the one or more attributes of a second results of the plurality of results; and

in response to determining that the one or more attributes of the first and second results match, grouping the first and second results.

2. The computer readable medium of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

determining whether the first result contains the one or more attributes; and

determining whether the second result contains the one or more attributes.

3. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the plurality of results are displayed in a dynamic folder.

4. The computer readable medium of claim 3, further comprising the steps of:

creating a separate dynamic folder; and

displaying the first and second results in the separate dynamic folder.

5. The computer readable medium of claim 3, further comprising the steps of:

determining whether a number of results exceeds a threshold, wherein the threshold identifies a limit to the number of results that the dynamic folder is able to display; and

in response to determining that the number of results exceeds the threshold, ranking the results based on a similarity level of each of the plurality of results determined by the semantic query.

6. The computer readable medium of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

determining whether the first result and second result are semantically related based on one or more user operations associated with one of the first result and the second result; and

in response to determining that the first result and the second result are semantically related, grouping the first result and the second result.

7. The computer readable medium of claim 6, wherein the one or more user operations include concurrently accessing the first result with the second result.

8. A computer readable medium storing computer readable instructions that, when executed, perform a method for adaptively grouping results from a query, the method comprising the steps of:

identifying a plurality of results associated with a semantic query;

retrieving a user profile, wherein the user profile includes user preferences and user access patterns; and

determining a grouping scheme based on the retrieved user profile.

9. The computer readable medium of claim 8, wherein the user access patterns imply a relationship between a first result of the plurality of results and a second result of the plurality of results.

10. The computer readable medium of claim 8, wherein the user preferences include one or more preferred grouping attributes.

11. The computer readable medium of claim 8, further comprising the steps of:

extracting one or more semantic attributes from a first result of the plurality of results;

extracting one or more semantic attributes from a second result of the plurality of results; and

comparing the one or more semantic attributes of the first result with the one or more semantic attributes of the second result.

12. The computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein a relevance between the first result and the second result is determined based on the comparison.

13. The computer readable medium of claim 8, wherein the plurality of results are displayed in a dynamic window.

14. The computer readable medium of claim 13, further comprising the steps of:

grouping the first result and the second result based on the retrieved user profile;

creating a separate dynamic window; and

displaying the first result and the second result in the separate dynamic window.

15. A computer readable medium storing computer readable instructions that, when executed, perform a method for adaptively grouping results from a query, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving a plurality of results from a query; and

dividing the plurality of results from the query into a plurality of groups in accordance with a stored user profile.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the stored user profile includes at least one of a user preference and a user access pattern.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein a semantic relationship between a first result of the plurality of results and a second result of the plurality of results is identified based on a user access pattern associated with the stored user profile.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the plurality of groups are displayed in a plurality of dynamic folders.

19. The computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein a relevance between a first result of the plurality of results and a second result of the plurality results is determined based on the stored user profile.

20. The computer readable medium of claim 19, wherein the first result and the second result are grouped together in response to determining that the relevance between the first and second results meet a relevance threshold.