Systems and methods for document searching and organizing

• US 7,185,001 B1
• Filed: 10/04/2001
• Issued: 02/27/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 10/04/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Torch Concepts
• Original Assignee: Torch Concepts
• Inventors: Heckman, Stan, Bradley, Scott, Schoendorf, William, Burdick, Bernard, Thomas, Ryan, Hall, Theodore
• Primary Examiner(s): Leroux; Etienne P.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Mahmoudi; Hassan (Tony)
• Application Number:
  US09/971,868
• Time in Patent Office: 1,972 Days
• Field of Search: 707/3, 707/4, 707/5, 707/10, 707/104.1, 704/235, 709/203
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3322 using system suggestions G06F16/3325 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/345 Summarisation for human users
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/355 Class or cluster creation or modification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99934 Query formulation, input preparation, or translation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99935 Query augmenting and refining, e.g. inexact access

Abstract

Systems and methods interactive document search, retrieval, categorization, and summarization are provided. A document organizer processor may analyze the content of documents, such as web pages and text documents, downloaded from a computer network, such as the Internet or an intranet, in response to a user'"'"'s search query. After receiving a search query from a user, the processor may locate documents related to the query, parse words in the documents into a word set, filter out unnecessary words, group the documents into categories, provide labels for the categories, construct summaries of the documents in each category, determine if any additional words or phases are to be recommended, present the labels and summaries to the user, and enable the user to iteratively refine the search.

Claims

1. A method for interactive document searching comprising:

receiving a search query;

searching for documents using the search query;

retrieving documents located during the searching;

clustering the retrieved documents into categories;

labeling the categories of documents from the clustering;

summarizing the retrieved documents;

displaying the labeled categories and document summaries;

parsing words of the retrieved documents to create word sets before the clustering of retrieved documents into categories; and

filtering a set of predefined words from the word sets.

2. A method for interactive document searching comprising:

receiving a search query;

searching for documents using the search query;

retrieving documents located during the searching;

clustering the retrieved documents into categories;

labeling the categories of documents from the clustering;

summarizing the retrieved documents; and

displaying the labeled categories and document summaries;

parsing words of the retrieved documents to create word sets before the clustering of retrieved documents into categories; and

assigning a numerical weight value to the parsed words in each document based on their frequency of appearance in the document.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising determining root words from the received search query before the searching for documents.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising modifying the received search query with the determined root words before the searching for documents.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the clustering of documents into categories comprises determining similarities between the retrieved documents and grouping the similar documents into clusters.

6. The method of claim 2, further comprising forming at least one vector based on at least one word set.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the similarity between documents is determined by comparing a plurality of vectors.

8. The method of claim 2, further comprising suggesting words to be added to the search query after the displaying of the labeled categories and document summaries.

9. The method of claim 2, further comprising after the displaying:

receiving a selection of a category;

reclustering the documents into categories based on the received selection;

labeling the reclustered categories;

summarizing the documents in the reclustered categories; and

displaying the labeled reclustered categories and document summaries.

10. The method of claim 2, further comprising after the displaying:

receiving a selection of a document; and

displaying the selected document.

11. A system for interactive document searching comprising:

means for receiving a search query;

means for searching for documents using the search query;

means for retrieving documents located by the searching means;

means for clustering the documents retrieved by the retrieving means into categories;

means for labeling the categories from the clustering means;

means for summarizing the documents retrieved by the retrieving means;

means for displaying the labeled categories from the labeling means and the summaries from the summarizing means;

means for parsing words of the retrieved documents to create word sets before clustering the retrieved documents into categories by the clustering means; and

means for filtering a set of predefined words from the word sets.

12. The system of claim 11, further comprising means for determining root words from the received search query before searching for documents with the searching means.

13. The system of claim 12, further comprising means for modifying the received search query with the determined root words before searching for documents with the searching means.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the means for clustering documents into categories comprises means for determining similarities between retrieved documents and grouping the similar documents into clusters.

15. The system of claim 11, further comprising means for suggesting words to be added to the search query after displaying of the labeled categories and document summaries with the displaying means.

16. The system of claim 11, further comprising:

means for receiving a selection of a category;

means for reclustering the documents into categories based on the selection from the receiving means;

means for labeling the categories from the reclustering means;

means for summarizing the documents in the reclustered categories; and

means for displaying the labels from the labeling means and document summaries from the summarizing means.

17. The system of claim 11, further comprising:

means for receiving a selection of a document; and

means for displaying the selected document.

18. A system for interactive document searching comprising:

means for receiving a search query;

means for searching for documents using the search query;

means for retrieving documents located by the searching means;

means for clustering the documents retrieved by the retrieving means into categories;

means for labeling the categories from the clustering means;

means for summarizing the documents retrieved by the retrieving means;

means for displaying the labeled categories from the labeling means and the summaries from the summarizing means;

means for parsing words of the retrieved documents to create word sets before clustering the retrieved documents into categories by the clustering means; and

means for assigning a numerical weight value to the parsed words in each document based on their frequency of appearance in the document.

19. The system of claim 18, further comprising means for forming at least one vector based on at least one word set.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the means for determining the similarity between documents is determined by means for comparing a plurality of vectors.

21. An interactive document search system comprising:

an input device for receiving a search query;

a communications device for communicating with a computer network;

a search module for searching and retrieving documents on the computer network using the communications device based on the search query received from the input device;

a categorizer module for clustering the documents retrieved by the search module into categories;

a category labeler module for labeling the categories of clustered documents from the categorizer module;

a summarizer module for summarizing the documents categorized by the categorizing module; and

a display device for displaying the labels from the labeler module and the summaries from the categorizer module;

a word parser module that parses words from the documents retrieved by the search module to create word sets; and

a filter module that filters a set of predefined words from the word sets formed by the word parser module.

22. The system of claim 21, further comprising a stemming module that determines root words from the search query received by the input device.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the stemming module modifies the search query received by the input device.

24. The system of claim 21, wherein the categorizer module clusters documents into categories by determining similarities between the documents retrieved by the search module and grouping the similar documents into clusters.

25. An interactive document search system comprising:

an input device for receiving a search query;

a communications device for communicating with a computer network;

a search module for searching and retrieving documents on the computer network using the communications device based on the search query received from the input device;

a categorizer module for clustering the documents retrieved by the search module into categories;

a category labeler module for labeling the categories of clustered documents from the categorizer module;

a summarizer module for summarizing the documents categorized by the categorizing module; and

a display device for displaying the labels from the labeler module and the summaries from the categorizer module;

a word parser module that parses words from the documents retrieved by the search module to create word sets, wherein the word parser module assigns a numerical weight value to the parsed words in each document based on their frequency of appearance in the document.

26. The system of claim 25, further comprising a vector module wherein the processor forms at least one vector based on at least one word set formed by the word parser module.

27. The system of claim 26, wherein the vector module determines the similarity between documents by comparing a plurality of vectors.