Techniques for Creating Computer Generated Notes

• US 20080021701A1
• Filed: 06/12/2007
• Published: 01/24/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 11/14/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Make Sence Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Make Sence Incorporated
• Inventors: Wimmer, Carl, Bobick, Mark
• Granted Patent: US 8,024,653 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/9
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/258 Data format conversion from or to a database
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/93 Document management systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/955 using information identifiers, e.g. uniform resource locators [URL]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/20 Natural language analysis semantic analysis of natural language G06F40/30
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/247 Thesauruses; Synonyms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/258 Heading extraction; Automatic titling; Numbering
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/284 Lexical analysis, e.g. tokenisation or collocates
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/022 Knowledge engineering; Knowledge acquisition

Abstract

Text is extracted from and information resource such as documents, emails, relational database tables and other digitized information sources. The extracted text is processed using a decomposition function to create. Nodes are a particular data structure that stores elemental units of information. The nodes can convey meaning because they relate a subject term or phrase to an attribute term or phrase. Removed from the node data structure, the node contents are or can become a text fragment which conveys meaning, i.e., a note. The notes generated from each digital resource are associated with the digital resource from which they are captured. The notes are then stored, organized and presented in several ways which facilitate knowledge acquisition and utilization by a user.

Claims

1. Apparatus for generating notes of content from an information resource, comprising:

a. a decomposition element for decomposing textual information from said information resource into information nodes;

b. a note conversion element for converting nodes into notes; and

c. a storage element for storing said notes.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 in which said textual information is provided by an extraction element for separating textual information from said information resource from other information.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, in which said decomposition element comprises a serial analyzer producing a document of sentences.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, in which a tagger element associates each word of a sentence of said document of sentences with a token representing a syntactic role of said word forming a sequence of token-word pairs for each sentence.

5. The apparatus of claim 4 further comprising a node generation element which compares the sequence of token-word pairs of a sentence with a set of syntactical patterns specified for a language to produce a set of nodes.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 in which the sets of syntactical patterns includes patterns beyond the patterns utilized to interpret the language.

7. The apparatus of claim 5 in which the node generation element searches the sequence of token-word pairs in accordance with a per pattern token seeking behavioral constraint.

8. The apparatus of claim 5, in which the node generation element searches the sequence of token-word pairs for token patterns, the elements of which are not adjacent in the sequence of token-word pairs.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, in which the token patterns may include elements in which the elements of the token patterns are selected from token-word pairs that are separated by greater than one token-word pair of said sequence of token-word pairs.

10. The apparatus of claim 5, in which the node generation element enforces constraints on certain token patterns.

11. The apparatus of claim 5, in which certain nodes are eliminated from the set of nodes by post generation node filters.

12. The apparatus of claim 1, in which the note conversion element converts the format of nodes into a format that more nearly represents a natural language statement.

13. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising a display element for displaying notes from said storage element.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, in which the display element allows for selective storage of notes as well as storage of all notes.

15. The apparatus of claim 1, in which the information resource is connected to said apparatus over a network.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, in which the network is an Internet.

17. A method for generating notes of content from an information resource, comprising the steps of:

a. decomposing textual information from said information resource into information nodes;

b. converting nodes into notes; and

c. storing said notes.

18. The method of claim 17 further comprising the step of separating textual information from said information resource from other information.

19. The method of claim 17, further comprising the step of analyzing said textual information to produce a document of sentences.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising the step of associating each word of a sentence of said document of sentences with a token representing a syntactic role of said word forming a sequence of token-word pairs for each sentence.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising the step of comparing the sequence of token-word pairs of a sentence with a set of syntactical patterns available in a language to produce a set of nodes.

22. The method of claim 21 further comprising the step of converting nodes into notes.

23. A computer program product comprising:

a. a memory medium; and

b. computer controlling instructions, stored on said memory medium for

1. decomposing textual information from an information resource into information nodes;

2. converting nodes into notes; and

3. storing said notes.

24. A graphical user interface comprising:

a display of textual information from an information resource, and

a display element for initiating derivation of notes from said textual information.

25. The graphical user interface of claim 24, further comprising a display of all notes derived from said textual information.

26. The graphical user interface of claim 25 further comprising at least one display element for storing said notes.

27. The graphical user interface of claim 26 in which said at least one display element comprises a display element for initiating storing selected notes of said notes and a display element for initiating storing of all said notes.