System and method for fitness evaluation for optimization in document assembly

• US 7,171,617 B2
• Filed: 07/30/2002
• Issued: 01/30/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 07/30/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Xerox Corporation (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Xerox Corporation (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Inventors: Harrington, Steven J., Purvis, Lisa S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Hutton; Doug
• Assistant Examiner(s): RUTLEDGE, AMELIA L
• Application Number:
  US10/209,242
• Publication Number:
  US 20040025109A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,645 Days
• Field of Search: 715/517, 715/512, 715/500, 715/500.1, 345/619
• US Class Current: 715/255
• 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

Abstract

What is disclosed is a system and method for method for fitness evaluation to be used with a directly calculated or iterative optimization method for automatic document assembly. The method for fitness evaluation includes the steps of first capturing the creator'"'"'s desire as a set of relative weights to be applied to an intent vector. Then, calculating for each candidate document assembly a set of value-property functions that evaluate properties considered to be factors in a good design (e.g., the balance of the document component on the page). Next, an inferred intent vector needs to be determined for each candidate document assembly as a function of the calculated value property function. Note that if the inferred intent vector is determined by a matrix multiplication applied to the vector of value property function results then the relative weights and intent definition matrix can be multiplied together to provide a weight vector that can be applied directly to the value properties. The desired weights are then applied to the inferred intents to derive a fitness measure by multiplying the intent vector components by weights and summing.

Claims

1. A method for evaluating, by generating a fitness measure value, a set of variable data documents generated by an automatic document assembly process, a set of variable data documents being a set of documents having a portion corresponding to a predetermined content and a portion corresponding to a variable content, the predetermined content being the same in each document of the set of variable data documents, comprising:

(a) inputting, through an input device, document specifications for a set of variable data documents to be generated, the document specifications being represented as a set of relative weights;

(b) generating, using a processor, an set of electronic variable data documents;

(c) executing,for each electronic variable data document, a set of value-property functions to generate a set of value properties, said set of value-property functions evaluating properties representing a good design;

(d) determining an inferred intent vector for each electronic variable data document as a function of the set of calculated set of value properties, the inferred intent vector is determined by a matrix multiplication applied to a vector of value properties; and

(e) generating a fitness measure value by multiplying components of the inferred intent vector by a corresponding relative weight from the set of relative weights to generate a set of products and summing the set of products.