System method and computer program product for obtaining structured data from text

• US 7,174,507 B2
• Filed: 02/10/2003
• Issued: 02/06/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 02/10/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kaidara
• Original Assignee: Kaidara
• Inventors: Madec, Olivier Camille, Baudin, Catherine Marie, Manago, Michel Vladimir
• Primary Examiner(s): Hong; Stephen
• Assistant Examiner(s): HONEYCUTT, KRISTINA B
• Application Number:
  US10/360,864
• Publication Number:
  US 20040163043A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,457 Days
• Field of Search: 715/523, 715/513, 715/531, 715/538
• US Class Current: 715/234
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24522 Translation of natural language queries to structured queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/313 Selection or weighting of terms for indexing

Abstract

A method, system, and computer program product for obtaining structured data from text includes inputting text to be transformed into structured data, defining at least one criterion relating to content of the text, applying a first matching method to the text to identify a value in the text for each of the criterion, and applying a second matching method to the text to identify a value in the text for each of the criterion that the first matching method fails to identify a value for. Each of the criterion is then associated with a value obtained by the first or second matching method to create at least one criterion-value pair, and structured data is created based on the at least one criterion-value pair. The first matching method has a higher reliability than the second matching method.

Claims

1. A computer-readable software system for effecting on a computer an automatic case acquisition system using a text transformation system, the system comprising:

a case acquisition system;

a case based reasoning engine; and

a model editor interface;

wherein the case acquisition system comprises a memory device having embodied therein, data related to transforming text into structure data, and a processor in communication with said memory device, said processor configured to cause the system to input text to be transformed into structured data, define at least one criterion relating to content of said text, apply a first matching method to said text to identify a value in said text for each of said criterion, apply a second matching method to said text to identify a value in said text for each of said criterion that said first matching method fails to identify a value for, associate each of said criterion with a value obtained by said first or second matching method to create at least one criterion-value pair, and create structure data based on said at least one criterion-value pair, where the first matching method has a higher reliability than said second matching method;

wherein the case based reasoning engine comprises a structured advisory system; and

wherein the model editor interface comprises an interface that allows a system administration to add at least a relation and at least a similarity information usable to the case based reasoning engine.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the case acquisition system inputs a bulk file of unstructured records such as textual documents.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the case acquisition system inputs a bulk file of unstructured records such as semi-structured database tables.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the case acquisition system inputs a bulk file of unstructured records such as spreadsheets.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the case acquisition system inputs a bulk file of unstructured records such as XML files.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the case acquisition system inputs a structured domain model and a lexical script for use in converting the unstructured records into structured cases that can be used by the case based reasoning engine.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the first matching method is a pattern-based matching method.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the second matching method is an ontology-based matching method.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the defining criterion comprises importing at least one criterion from a domain model.

10. The system of claim 9, further comprising importing a relationship correspond to any two of said criterion, said relationship being used in at least one of said first and second matching method.

11. The system of claim 1, further comprising detecting a conflict when a word in the input text matches more than one of said criterion.

12. The system of claim 1, further comprising assigning a confidence level to any of said. criterion-value pairs.

13. The system of claim 1, further comprising propagating values of said structured data to a domain model.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein said first and second matching methods are different types of matching methods.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein said first and second matching methods are a same type of matching method having different levels of reliability.

16. A system for generating cases to be used by a cased based reasoning engine, the system comprising a memory device having embodied therein, data related to generating cases used by a cased based reasoning engine, and a processor in communication with the memory device, the processor configured to cause the system to comprise:

a case acquisition system;

a case based reasoning engine;

a model editor interface;

at least a bulk file of unstructured records;

a structured domain model and lexical script;

a validation set of cases created by the case acquisition system to be validated by a user to be added to the structured cases; and

structured cases created by the case acquisition system;

wherein the case acquisition system is a text transformation system able to transform bulk files of unstructured records into data to be processed ultimately by the case base reasoning engine, the model editor interface comprises an interface that allows a system administration to add at least a relation and at least a similarity information usable to the case based reasoning engine, the model editor interface taking input from the structured cases or the structured domain model and lexical script.

17. A computer-readable software system embodied on a computer-readable medium for generating cases to be used by a cased based reasoning engine associated with a degree of confidence, the system comprising:

at least a bulk file of unstructured records;

a case acquisition system able to transform bulk files of unstructured records into either a validation set of cases or a structured set of cases;

a case based reasoning engine able to process the structured set of cases;

wherein the validation set of cases is validated by a user and then added to the structured set of cases, and where the case acquisition system generates cases associated with a degree of confidence function of a degree of confidence associated with the recognized text values at a threshold, where cases with a degree of confidence lower than the threshold are sent to the validation set and the cases associated with a degree of confidence higher than the threshold are sent to the structured set of cases.