SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DETECTING, COLLECTING, ANALYZING, AND COMMUNICATING EVENT-RELATED INFORMATION

• US 20120197896A1
• Filed: 07/27/2011
• Published: 08/02/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/25/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Georgetown University
• Original Assignee: Georgetown University
• Inventors: Collmann, Jeffrey R., Blake, Jane W., Polyak, Mark G., Yoon, Jae In, LI, Peter C., Wilson, James M., Torii, Manabu, Thomas, Carla S.
• Granted Patent: US 9,529,974 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/740
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/313 Selection or weighting of terms for indexing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/04 Forecasting or optimisation specially adapted for administrative or management purposes, e.g. linear programming or "cutting stock problem" market predictions or forecasting for commercial activities G06Q30/0202
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/26 Government or public services business processes related to the transportation industry G06Q50/40
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/80 for detecting, monitoring or modelling epidemics or pandemics, e.g. flu
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: Y02A 90/10 Information and communication technologies [ICT] supporting adaptation to climate change, e.g. for weather forecasting or climate simulation

Abstract

A system and method involves detecting operational social disruptive events on a global scale, assigning event staging and warnings to express data in more simplistic terms, modeling data in conjunction with linguistics analysis to establish responsive actions, generating visualization and modeling capabilities for communicating information, and modeling propagation of events for containment and forecasting purposes.

Claims

1. A method for filtering data downloadable from open sources, comprising the steps of:

storing at a first server at least one parameter for each of a plurality of indications and warnings associated with a socially disruptive event;

identifying at least one information source at a second server comprising the downloadable data;

downloading the data at the end of a pre-determined time period;

filtering the downloaded data at the first server to identify a subset of the data comprising the at least one parameter;

processing the subset of the data to identify at least one textual feature;

comparing the at least one textual feature to a plurality of pre-determined rank-ordered textural features;

assigning a classification index to the subset of the data based on the comparison indicating the relevance of the subset of the data; and

where the classification index exceeds a pre-determined value, storing an event report comprising the subset of the data.

2. A method for filtering open source documents to detect events, comprising the steps of:

selecting an event type, wherein the event type is related to a disease or pest infestation affecting a plant or non-human animal;

selecting a surveillance location;

selecting information sources that may have data about the event type;

storing at a first server at least one parameter for each of a plurality of indications and warnings associated with the event type;

downloading data from the selected information sources;

filtering the data to identify a subset of the data relating to the at least one parameter;

storing an event report; and

outputting the event report over a communications network.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the surveillance location is one of a town, city, region, and country.

4. The method according to claim 2, wherein the information sources are web servers connected to the Internet.

5. The method according to claim 2, wherein the at least one parameter are individual or combinations of keywords.

6. The method according to claim 2, wherein the step of downloading data from the selected information sources comprises the steps of:

crawling the information sources;

encoding the data; and

storing the encoded data in a first database.

7. The method according to claim 6, further comprising the step of indexing the encoded data.

8. The method according to claim 2, further comprising the step of translating the data from a first language into a second language.

9. The method according to claim 2, further comprising assigning a scale value to the subset of the data indicating a degree of the event.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein the scale value comprises an indicia selected from one of a word, a phrase, and a color.

11. The method according to claim 9, wherein the scale value is selected from one of an Advisory, a Watch, and a Warning.

12. The method according to claim 2, wherein the step of storing the event report comprises the steps of:

launching a template;

selecting metadata from a stored list of possible metadata;

if an event report exists, updating the existing event report using some of the subset of the data and the metadata; and

if an event report does not exist, storing a first summary of the event using some of the subset of the data and the metadata in an event report file.

13. The method according to claim 2, further comprising the step of reviewing the stored event report.

14. The method according to claim 2, wherein the step of filtering comprises the steps of:

receiving a query search string;

comparing the query search string to an index; and

returning a list comprising the subset of the data using the query search string.