Method and system for displaying relationship between structured data and unstructured data

• US 20070244859A1
• Filed: 04/13/2006
• Published: 10/18/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 04/13/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: American Chemical Society
• Original Assignee: American Chemical Society
• Inventors: Schenck, Roger, Bartelt, William, Trippe, Anthony, Fisher, Jeffrey, Powers, Stephen, Hill, Todd, Schwall, Kirk, Vondran, Jay, Vorbau, James
• Application Number:
  US11/403,195
• Publication Number:
  US 20070244859A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/243 Natural language query formulation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/338 Presentation of query results

Abstract

A method, system, and software of relating structured data to unstructured data includes displaying unstructured data in a first display area and displaying structured data related to the unstructured data in a second display area. In response to a change in the display of one of the unstructured data in the first display area or the structured data in the second display area, automatically dynamically changing the display in the other of the first display area or the second display area to display changed data based on its relation to the changed data in the one of the first display area or the second display area.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method of relating structured data to unstructured data, comprising the steps of:

displaying unstructured data in a first display area;

displaying structured data related to the unstructured data in a second display area;

in response to a change in the display of one of the unstructured data in the first display area or the structured data in the second display area, automatically dynamically changing the display in the other of the first display area or the second display area to display changed data based on its relation to the changed data in the one of the first display area or the second display area.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of displaying the unstructured data includes performing a search of one or more databases to retrieve the unstructured data displayed in the first display area.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the step of displaying the structured data comprises retrieving structured data from the one or more databases based on its association with the unstructured data retrieved from the one or more databases.

4. The method according to claim 2, wherein the search comprises an enhanced search based on related terms to provided search terms.

5. The method according to claim 2, wherein the step of displaying structured data comprises deriving the structured data from the unstructured data retrieved from the one or more databases.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of displaying structured data is performed automatically responsive to the step of displaying unstructured data.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of displaying the unstructured data comprises displaying a cluster map of retrieved data in which similar data based on one or more attributes of the retrieved data are grouped together in similar clusters.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of displaying the unstructured data comprises displaying a classification scheme of the retrieved data in which similar data based on one or more attributes of the retrieved data are grouped together in similar classifications.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of displaying structured data comprises displaying a one-dimensional display based on an attribute of the retrieved data displayed in the first display area.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of displaying the structured data comprises displaying a two-dimensional display based on two attributes of the retrieved data displayed in the first display area.

11. The method according to claim 7, wherein the clusters are displayed in a three-dimensional display in the first display area.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein the distance between the clusters indicates a measure of similarity in the data included in the respective clusters.

13. The method according to claim 7, further comprising:

receiving a selection of one or more of the clusters displayed in the first display area; and

automatically dynamically altering the display of the structured data in the second display area to correspond to the selected one or more clusters in the first display area.

14. The method according to claim 8, further comprising:

receiving a selection of one or more of the classifications displayed in the first display area; and

automatically dynamically altering the display of the structured data in the second display area to correspond to the selected one or more classifications in the first display area.

15. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first display area and the second display area are respective windows in a graphical user interface on a computer display.

16. The method according to claim 15, wherein the first display area and the second display area are displayed coordinated and displayed across two or more computer display screens.

17. The method according to claim 1, wherein the unstructured data comprises documents stored in one or more databases and the structured data comprises one or more attributes associates with the documents stored in the one or more databases.

18. The method according to claim 5, further comprising:

harvesting a subset of terms from the unstructured data which comprises documents retrieved from one or more databases;

harmonizing the harvested terms to a lexicon to derive a document vector;

storing a document vector for each document in a searchable database wherein the document vector contains concept indicators associated with each document; and

wherein the step of displaying a cluster map includes a similarity calculation based on the concept indicators included with the document vector associated with each document retrieved in a search.

19. The method according to claim 18, wherein the step of displaying unstructured data in a first display area comprises displaying a three dimensional map in which larger clusters based on concept indicators are displayed as larger peaks compared to smaller clusters which are displayed as smaller peaks.

20. The method according to claim 1, further comprising automatically displaying other structured data in a third display area related to the unstructured data in the first display area.

21. The method according to claim 20, wherein the display in any two of the first display area, the second display area, and the third display area are automatically dynamically changed to reflect a changed display in the other of the first display area, the second display area, and the third display area.

22. The method according to claim 21, wherein the first display area displays a cluster map of documents clustered based on concept indicators associated with each document, the second display area displays a one-dimensional display that displays one attribute associated with the documents in the cluster map displayed in the first display area, and the third display area displays a multi-dimensional display that displays at least two attributes associated with the documents in the cluster map displayed in the first display area.

23. The method according to claim 22, further comprising:

receiving a selection of a subset of data in one of the first display area, second display area, or the third display area;

automatically dynamically highlighting the data in the others of the first, second, and third display areas that correspond to the selected subset of data in the one of the first display area, the second display area, and the third display area.

24. The method according to claim 1, further comprising a document viewer display area in which specific documents included in the unstructured data or lists of documents included in the unstructured data may be viewed, wherein the list of documents displayed in the document viewer display area corresponds to a selection made in one of the first display area or the second display area.

25. The method according to claim 24, wherein the document viewer display area includes a flagged tab by which a user can flag documents that are then always listed in the document viewer display area irrespective of any selection made in either the first display area or the second display area.

26. A system for relating structured data to unstructured data, comprising:

a display unit configured to display unstructured data in a first display area;

the display unit also configured to display structured data related to the unstructured data in a second display area; and

a processing unit configured, in response a change in the display of one of the unstructured data in the first display area or the structured data in the second display area, to automatically dynamically change the display in the other of the first display area or the second display area to display changed data based on its relation to the changed data in the one of the first display area or the second display area.

27. The system according to claim 26, in which the processing unit is configured to perform a search of one or more databases to retrieve unstructured data displayed in the first display area.

28. The system according to claim 26, wherein the processing unit is configured to display the structured data automatically responsive to displaying unstructured data.

29. The system according to claim 26, wherein the processing unit is configured to display on the display unit, the structured data as a cluster map of retrieved data in which similar data based on or more attributes of the retrieved data are grouped together in similar clusters.

30. The system according to claim 26, wherein the processing unit is configured to display a one-dimensional display on the display unit based on an attribute of the retrieved data displayed in the first display area.

31. The system according to claim 26, wherein the processing unit is configured to display a two-dimensional display on the display unit based on two attributes of the retrieved data displayed in the first display area.

32. The system according to claim 29, wherein the processing unit is configured to receive a selection of one more of the clusters displayed in the first display area and automatically dynamically altering the display of the structured data in the second display area to correspond to the selected one or more clusters in the first display area.

33. The system according to claim 26, wherein the first display area and the second display area are windows in a graphical user interface on the display unit.

34. The system according to claim 26, wherein the processing unit is further configured to:

harvest a subset of terms from the unstructured data which comprises documents retrieved from one or more databases;

harmonize the harvested terms to a lexicon to derive a document vector; and

store a document vector for each document in a searchable database wherein the document vector contains concept indicators associated with each document;

wherein the document vector is used in clustering or classification of the document.

35. The system according to claim 26, wherein the processing unit is configured to automatically dynamically change the display in any two of the first display area, the second display area, and a third display area to reflect a changed display in the other of the first display area, the second display area, and the third display area.

36. A computer readable medium having program code recorded thereon that, when executed on a computing system, relates structured data to unstructured data, the program code comprising:

code for displaying unstructured data in a first display area;

code for displaying structured data related to the unstructured data in a second display area;

code for, in response a change in the display of one of the unstructured data in the first display area or the structured data in the second display area, automatically dynamically changing the display in the other of the first display area or the second display area to display changed data based on its relation to the changed data in the one of the first display area or the second display area.

37. The computer readable medium according to claim 36, wherein the code for displaying unstructured data in a first data area includes code for performing a search for of one or more databases to retrieve the unstructured data displayed in the first display area.

38. The computer readable medium according to claim 36, wherein the code for displaying structured data automatically displays the structured data responsive to the display of the unstructured data.

39. The computer readable medium according to claim 36, wherein the code for displaying unstructured data displays a cluster map of retrieved data in which similar data based on one or more attributes of the retrieved data are grouped together in similar clusters.

40. The computer readable medium according to claim 36, further comprising code for receiving a selection of one or more of the clusters displayed in the first display area;

and

code for automatically dynamically altering the display of the structured data in the second display area to correspond to the selected one or more clusters in the first display area.

41. The computer readable medium according to claim 36, further comprising:

code for harvesting a subset of terms from the unstructured data which comprises documents retrieved from one or more databases;

code for harmonizing the harvested terms to a lexicon to derive a document vector; and

code for storing a document vector for each document in a searchable database wherein the document vector contains concept indicators associated with each document;

wherein the document vector is used in clustering or classification of the document.

42. The computer readable medium according to claim 36, further comprising code for automatically dynamically changing the display in any two of the first display area, the second display area, and a third display area to reflect a changed display in the other of the first display area, the second display area, and the third display area.

43. A system for relating structured data to unstructured data, comprising:

means displaying unstructured data in a first display area;

means for displaying structured data related to the unstructured data in a second display area; and

means, in response a change in the display of one of the unstructured data in the first display area or the structured data in the second display area, for automatically dynamically changing the display in the other of the first display area or the second display area to display changed data based on its relation to the changed data in the one of the first display area or the second display area.

44. A system for relating structured data to unstructured data, comprising:

a display unit configured to display unstructured data in a first display area;

the display unit also configured to display structured data related to the unstructured data in a second display area; and

a processing unit configured, in response a change in the display of one of the unstructured data in the first display area or the structured data in the second display area, to automatically dynamically change the display in the other of the first display area or the second display area to display changed data based on its relation to the changed data in the one of the first display area or the second display area,

wherein display unit comprises a graphical user interface which independently controls and formats the first display area and the second display area.