INTELLIGENT FORM FILLER

• US 20080235567A1
• Filed: 06/13/2007
• Published: 09/25/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/22/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Oath Inc. (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Oath Inc. (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Jaiswal, Amit, Ganesan, Shivakumar, Prabhakar, Bangalore Subbaramaiah, Sunil Kumar, Yarram V., RAJ, BINU
• Application Number:
  US11/762,618
• Publication Number:
  US 20080235567A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/226
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/174 Form filling; Merging

Abstract

Automatically determining values for fields in an electronic document. In one embodiment, an intelligent form filler automatically fills in at least some of the fields based on as set of rules associated with a domain. A particular set of domain rules may have class definitions that define how to classify a field for that domain and group definitions that define how to group fields. The domain rules also describe how values can be determined for the fields, based on the classifications, groupings, and other factors. In one embodiment, the intelligent form filler submits more than one form such that different combinations of values are submitted. The values that were used to fill in the form(s) may be provided to an extraction tool, which use the values to facilitate extraction of information from a document returned in response to submitting the form.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

determining a domain associated with an electronic document that includes one or more fields for receiving values;

selecting, from a plurality of rule sets, a rule set for automatically determining values for fields in electronic documents associated with the domain;

for a field in the electronic document, determining a category based on the selected rule set; and

for the field, determining a value based on the selected set of rules and the category for the field.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

for a plurality of fields in the electronic document, determining respective categories for the fields based on the selected rule set; and

for the plurality of fields, determining a plurality of combinations of values for the plurality of fields in the electronic document.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the category for the field includes classifying the field based on a set of class definitions in the selected rule set.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the category for the field includes grouping two or more of the fields based on the selected rule set.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting the rule set is based on a selected vertical.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting the rule set is based on a source associated with the electronic document.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the electronic document is a first document, and further comprising:

using the value for the field to facilitate extracting a term from a second electronic document that is received in response to submitting the first electronic document with the field filled in with the value.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining for which fields in the electronic document to determine a value, based on the selected rule set.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the field is one of a plurality of types of fields, and wherein determining the category for the field is further based on the type of field.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising grouping fields in the electronic document that are semantically related.

11. A method comprising:

selecting, from a plurality of rule sets, a rule set for automatically determining values for fields in electronic documents associated with a domain;

for a plurality of fields in the electronic document, determining respective categories for the fields based on the selected rule set; and

for the plurality of fields, determining a plurality of combinations of values for the plurality of fields in the electronic document based on the selected rule set.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising selecting at least one of the plurality of combinations of values based on the selected rule set.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein determining respective categories for the fields includes classifying the field based on a set of class definitions in the selected rule set.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein determining respective categories for the fields includes grouping two or more of the fields based on the selected rule set.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein selecting the rule set is based on a selected vertical.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein selecting the rule set is based on a source associated with the electronic document.

17. The method of claim 11, wherein the electronic document is a first document, and further comprising:

submitting the first electronic document with a first of the combinations of values; and

using the first combination of values to facilitate extracting terms from a second electronic document that is received in response to submitting the first electronic document.

18. The method of claim 11, further comprising determining for which fields in the electronic document to determine a value, based on the selected rule set.

19. The method of claim 11, wherein the field is one of a plurality of types of fields, and wherein determining the category for the fields is further based on the type of field.

20. The method of claim 11, further comprising grouping fields in the electronic document whose values are dependent on one another.

21. The method of claim 11, wherein determining the plurality of combinations is based on an objective for filling in the electronic document.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the objective is to reduce the number of said plurality of combinations without substantially reducing desired content returned in response to submitting the electronic document with each of the plurality of combinations.

23. The method of claim 11, wherein determining the plurality of combinations includes determining how frequently a field of the plurality of fields should be filled in based on an importance assigned to the field.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the importance is based on quality of feedback that filling in the field will generate.