Hypothesis analysis methods, hypothesis analysis devices, and articles of manufacture

• US 20070255666A1
• Filed: 04/28/2006
• Published: 11/01/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 04/28/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Battelle Memorial Institute
• Original Assignee: Battelle Memorial Institute
• Inventors: Gregory, Michelle, Tratz, Stephen, Paulson, Patrick, Baddeley, Robert, Sanfilippo, Antonio, Hohimer, Ryan, Cowell, Andrew
• Granted Patent: US 8,140,464 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 706/12
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 7/01 Probabilistic graphical models, e.g. probabilistic networks
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 706/911 Nonmedical diagnostics

Abstract

Hypothesis analysis methods, hypothesis analysis devices, and articles of manufacture are described according to some aspects. In one aspect, a hypothesis analysis method includes providing a hypothesis, providing an indicator which at least one of supports and refutes the hypothesis, using the indicator, associating evidence with the hypothesis, weighting the association of the evidence with the hypothesis, and using the weighting, providing information regarding the accuracy of the hypothesis.

Claims

1. A hypothesis analysis method comprising:

providing a hypothesis;

providing an indicator which at least one of supports and refutes the hypothesis;

using the indicator, associating evidence with the hypothesis;

weighting the association of the evidence with the hypothesis; and

using the weighting, providing information regarding the accuracy of the hypothesis.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the associating comprises associating the evidence with the respective one of the indicators, and the weighting comprises weighting an association of the evidence with respect to the respective one of the indicators.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the evidence one of supports and refutes the indicator.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the weighting comprises weighting the association of the indicator with the hypothesis.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the associating comprises associating the evidence with the respective one of the indicators, and the weighting further comprises weighting an association of the evidence with respect to the respective one of the indicators.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the weighting comprises weighting responsive to user input.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the weighting comprises automatically weighting using processing circuitry.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the weighting indicates the strength of the evidence with respect to one of supporting and refuting the indicator.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the weighting indicates the reliability of the accuracy of the evidence.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the providing information regarding the accuracy of the hypothesis comprises providing the information automatically using processing circuitry.

11. The method of claim 1 further comprising displaying a hierarchy of the hypothesis and the evidence.

12. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

providing a plurality of plain text documents in the form of structured representations; and

selecting the evidence using the structured representations.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the indicator refutes and supports the hypothesis.

14. A hypothesis analysis method comprising:

providing an indicator which at least one of supports and refutes a hypothesis;

associating the indicator with the hypothesis;

providing evidence which at least one of supports and refutes the indicator;

associating the evidence with the indicator; and

providing information regarding the accuracy of the hypothesis using the association of the indicator with the hypothesis and the association of the evidence with the indicator.

15. A hypothesis analysis method comprising:

providing a hypothesis;

selecting a subset of a plurality of documents;

generating structured representations of the selected subset of the documents;

using the structured representations, identifying evidence relative to the hypothesis; and

associating the evidence with the hypothesis after the identifying.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the associating comprises at least one of supporting and refuting the hypothesis.

17. The method of claim 15 further comprising providing information regarding the accuracy of the hypothesis using the association.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the providing the information comprises automatically providing using processing circuitry in the absence of user input.

19. The method of claim 17 further comprising weighting the association of the evidence with the hypothesis, and the providing the information comprises providing the information using the weighting.

20. The method of claim 15 further comprising displaying the structured representations and the association of the evidence with the hypothesis using respective ones of a plurality of display screens.

21. The method of claim 15 wherein the associating comprises providing an indicator configured to at least one of support and refute the hypothesis, and associating the evidence with the indicator.

22. The method of claim 15 wherein the generating comprises generating the structured representations individually including a subject, predicate and object of a respective one of the documents.

23. A hypothesis analysis device comprising:

a user interface configured to receive user input from a user and to communicate information to the user; and

processing circuitry coupled with the user interface and wherein the processing circuitry is configured to control the user interface to communicate information regarding a hypothesis to the user, to associate evidence with the hypothesis, to analyze the association of the evidence with the hypothesis, to provide information regarding the accuracy of the hypothesis responsive to the analysis, and to control communication of the information regarding the accuracy of the hypothesis to the user.

24. The device of claim 23 wherein the processing circuitry is configured to associate a plurality of pieces of evidence with the hypothesis, to weight respective ones of the associations of the pieces of evidence with the hypothesis, and to determine the information regarding the accuracy using the weights of the associations.

25. The device of claim 24 wherein a user is configured to provide information regarding the weightings of the associations of the pieces of evidence with the hypothesis.

26. The device of claim 24 wherein the processing circuitry is configured to provide information regarding the weightings of the associations of the pieces of evidence with the hypothesis automatically without user input.

27. The device of claim 23 wherein the processing circuitry is configured to associate an indicator with the hypothesis and wherein the indicator at least one of supports and refutes the hypothesis, and wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to associate the evidence with the indicator.

28. The device of claim 27 wherein the processing circuitry is configured to first weight the association of the indicator with the hypothesis and to second weight the association of the evidence with the indicator, and wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to provide the information using the first and second weightings.

29. The device of claim 23 wherein the processing circuitry is configured to control the user interface to display a hierarchal representation of the hypothesis and the evidence.

30. The device of claim 23 wherein the processing circuitry is configured to access a plurality of documents, to generate a plurality of structured representations of respective ones of the documents, to control the user interface to depict the structured representations, to access user input received by the user interface selecting one of the structured representations, and to associate the evidence corresponding to the selected one of the structured representations with the hypothesis responsive to the selection.

31. The device of claim 30 wherein the user interface comprises a plurality of viewing screens, and wherein the processing circuitry is configured to control a first of the viewing screens to depict initial representations of the documents, to control a second of the viewing screens to depict the structured representations, and to control a third of the viewing screens to depict a hierarchal representation of the evidence and the hypothesis.

32. An article of manufacture comprising:

media comprising programming configured to cause processing circuitry to perform processing comprising;

controlling a display of a hypothesis;

first selecting a subset of documents from a larger set of documents;

second selecting evidence using one of the documents of the subset after the first selecting;

associating the evidence with hypothesis after the second selecting; and

providing information regarding the accuracy of the hypothesis using the association of the evidence with the hypothesis.

33. The article of claim 32 wherein the media comprises programming configured to cause processing circuitry to perform processing comprising generating an indicator configured to at least one of support and refute the hypothesis and the associating comprises associating the evidence with the indicator.

34. The article of claim 32 wherein the media comprises programming configured to cause processing circuitry to perform processing comprising generating a plurality of structured representations of the selected subset of documents, and controlling a display of the structured representations, and wherein the second selecting evidence comprises selecting responsive to receipt of user input after the controlling the display of the structured representations.