Method and system for real-time information analysis of textual material

• US 5,761,685 A
• Filed: 09/23/1996
• Issued: 06/02/1998
• Est. Priority Date: 12/14/1990
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: William H. Hutson
• Original Assignee: William H. Hutson
• Inventors: Hutson, William H.
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Phu K.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Vo, Cliff N.
• Application Number:
  US08/717,757
• Time in Patent Office: 617 Days
• Field of Search: 707/517, 707/526, 707/527, 707/528, 707/529, 707/530, 707/531
• US Class Current: 715/234
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 15/899 Combination of imaging systems with ancillary equipment
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 3/802 Systems for determining direction or deviation from predetermined direction
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/20 Stereoscopic displays; Three-dimensional displays; Pseudo-three-dimensional displays
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/6245 Stereoscopic displays; Three-dimensional displays; Pseudo-three dimensional displays
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/30 of unstructured textual data document management systems G06F16/93
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/253 Grammatical analysis; Style critique

Abstract

A multi-dimensional processing and display system that is used with textual data to provide a system by which large volumes of such textual data may be efficiently sorted and searched. Textual data that is input to the multi-dimensional processing and display system is from one or more documents that are reformatted and translated into one or more numeric matrices. The matrices are modified to enhance and/or suppress certain words, phrases, subjects, etc. Thereafter, a single two-dimensional data is formed by concatenating the numeric matrices. The multi-dimensional processing and display system creates and maintains a historical database which is also concatenated in the two-dimensional matrix. Once the textual data is in the form of a two-dimensional matrix, the data can be analyzed efficiently, for example, using singular value decomposition (SVD). In doing so, the two-dimensional concatenated matrix is decomposed to obtain a compressed form of the numeric matrix. Certain data elements in the two-dimensional matrix may be enhanced, while certain other data elements may be suppressed. After data enhancement and/or suppression, the two-dimensional matrix is partitioned and rearranged to form an enhanced multi-dimensional matrix. All or portions of the enhanced multi-dimensional matrix are then visually displayed. Lexical, semantic, and/ or textual constructs of interest may be displayed as opaque objects within a three-dimensional transparent cube, enabling a user to review many documents quickly and easily.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for at least enhancing selected information contained in a data containing media, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving input data representing a textual document having a number of human-readable words;

compressing the input data into compressed data structures having information regarding a location and relative importance of elements of the input data with at least a subset of the compressed data structures being enhanced with respect to a remainder of the compressed data structures by modifying the subset of the compressed data structures;

expanding the compressed data structures; and

displaying the expanded structures such that the expanded structures have an appearance of a polyhedron with the enhanced data structures being visually distinguishable from a remainder of data structures.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of displaying a cursor within the displayed polyhedron and moving the cursor within the polyhedron in response to user input.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the polyhedron is a rectangular prism.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of displaying textual data as a slice through the solid.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the polyhedron is a rectangular prism.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the displaying step includes displaying the text as an opaque feature within the solid.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising step of searching the expanded structures in response to a query for one or more features of interest.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the polyhedron is a rectangular prism.

9. A system for at least enhancing selected information contained in a data containing media, the system comprising:

means for receiving input data representing a textual document having a number of human-readable words;

means for compressing the input data into compressed data structures having information regarding a location and relative importance of elements of the input data with at least a subset of the compressed data structures being enhanced with respect to a remainder of the compressed data structures by modifying the subset of the compressed data structures;

means for expanding the compressed data structures; and

means for displaying the expanded structures in a manner such that the expanded structures have a multi-dimensional form at least three dimensions and with the enhanced data structures being visually distinguishable from a remainder of data structures.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the three dimensional form is a rectangular prism.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the displaying means displays a cursor movable within the three dimensional form.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the displaying means displays the text as an opaque feature within the three dimensional form.