Software agent for comparing locally accessible keywords with meta-information and having pointers associated with distributed information
First Claim
1. An information access system, for accessing information stored in a distributed manner and accessible by means of a communications network, said access system comprising:
- at least one software agent for use in accessing said information by means of said network,data storage locally accessible to said agent for storing meta-information including a pointer associated with pieces of said information where stored in said distributed manner for making it thereafter accessible via said network, and for storing at least one set of keywords,said agent being triggered on entry of meta-information in said data storage, to compare said at least one set of keywords to said meta-information and to transmit an alert message back to a user associated with said at least one set of stored keywords in the event of a positive comparison result.
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Abstract
A system for accessing information stored in a distributed information database provides a community of intelligent software agents. Each agent can be built as an extension of a known viewer for a distributed information system such as the Internet WorldWide Web. The agent is effectively integrated with the viewer and can extract pages by means of the viewer for storage in an intelligent page store. The text from the information system is abstracted and is stored with additional information, optionally selected by the user. The agent-based access system uses keyword sets to locate information of interest to a user, together with user profiles such that pages being stored by one user can be notified to another whose profile indicates potential interest. The keyword sets can be extended by use of a thesaurus.
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Citations
34 Claims
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1. An information access system, for accessing information stored in a distributed manner and accessible by means of a communications network, said access system comprising:
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at least one software agent for use in accessing said information by means of said network, data storage locally accessible to said agent for storing meta-information including a pointer associated with pieces of said information where stored in said distributed manner for making it thereafter accessible via said network, and for storing at least one set of keywords, said agent being triggered on entry of meta-information in said data storage, to compare said at least one set of keywords to said meta-information and to transmit an alert message back to a user associated with said at least one set of stored keywords in the event of a positive comparison result. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 31, 32)
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9. A method of monitoring meta-information inputted to a meta-information data store, the input meta-information being requested by any of a plurality of users, for the purpose of alerting a first user to input meta-information requested by a second user in accordance with alert criteria determined at least in part by said first user, said method comprising:
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i) storing a user profile for each of said users, which profile comprises at least one set of keywords and an identifier for each of said users; ii) detecting a request by said second user for meta-information to be entered to said data store; iii) processing said request with a software agent and generating with said agent said meta-information entry; iv) automatically comparing said meta-information entry with a keyword set from said user profile for said first user; and v) in the event of a positive result from said comparison, automatically generating and transmitting by said agent a message addressed to said first user. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12)
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13. An information access system, for accessing sets of information stored in a distributed manner and accessible by means of a communications network, the access system comprising:
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i) an input for receiving a set of information; ii) data storage, or means to access data storage, for storing at least one set of predetermined keywords; iii) generation means, triggerable;
(a) to generate at least one set of meta-information from the set of information received at the input, the meta-information including at least a pointer for the set of information where stored in said distributed manner, and (b) to locally store the at least one set of meta-information in the data storage;iv) comparison means for comparing at least one of the at least one set of stored keywords with the at least one set of meta-information; and v) means for automatically generating and transmitting a message back to a user associated with said at least one set of stored keywords in dependence upon the result of the comparison. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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23. A method of monitoring information sets stored in a distributed manner and accessible by means of a communications network for the purpose of alerting a first user in accordance with alert criteria determined at least in part by the first user to a locally accessible stored corresponding meta-information set identified by a second user, the method comprising:
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i) locally accessing a stored user profile for each of said users, which profile comprises at least one set of keywords and an identifier for each of said users; ii) detecting a request by the second user to store, in a meta-information data store, meta-information relating to the identified information set; iii) in response to the request, using a software agent to generate a set of meta-information dependent on the identified information set; iv) automatically comparing the generated set of meta-information with a keyword set from the user profile for the first user; and v) in dependence upon the result from the comparison, automatically generating and transmitting by said agent a message addressed to the first user. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25, 26, 33, 34)
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27. An information access system, for accessing sets of information stored in a distributed manner and accessible by means of a communication network, the access system comprising:
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i) an input for receiving a set of information; ii) means to locally access data storage storing at least one set of predetermined keywords; iii) generation means, triggerable;
(a) to generate at least one set of meta-information from the set of information received at the input, the meta-information including at least a pointer for the set of information when stored in said distributed manner, and (b) to store said set of meta-information when stored in the data storage;iv) clustering means, adapted to operate according to at least one keyword clustering algorithm, arranged to operate on a stored set of keywords to modify the keyword set with reference to meta-information stored in the data storage; and v) searching means to apply a keyword set modified by the clustering means to search for further information sets.
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28. A method of accessing sets of information stored in a distributed manner and accessible by means of a communications network, the method including the steps of:
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i) locally accessing, for each of one or more users, a stored user profile comprising at least one set of keywords and an identifier for the user; ii) receiving a plurality of information sets identified by one or more users and using an adaptive software agent to generate and store a set of meta-information in respect of each said identified information set; iii) applying, to keywords in a user profile, a keyword clustering algorithm operating with reference to the stored meta-information to modify the user profile; and iv) using the modified user profile from step iii) with said agent to identify one or more further sets of information, wherein said adaptive agent provides storing locally accessible said meta-information including a pointer and keywords based on information gathered from a distributed network. - View Dependent Claims (29, 30)
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Specification