Data storage, retrieval, manipulation and display tools enabling multiple hierarchical points of view

• US 7,246,128 B2
• Filed: 06/12/2003
• Issued: 07/17/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 06/12/2002
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Global Connect Technology, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Jena J. Jordahl
• Inventors: Jordahl, Jena J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Rones; Charles
• Assistant Examiner(s): CAO, PHUONG THAO
• Application Number:
  US10/461,182
• Publication Number:
  US 20040036716A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,496 Days
• Field of Search: 707100-102
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/287 Visualization; Browsing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99942 Manipulating data structure, e.g. compression, compaction, compilation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface

Abstract

Systems and methods for data storage, retrieval, manipulation and display provide search engines and computer-based research tools for enabling multiple hierarchical points of view. Category definitions in the hierarchical data structures can include lists of set members, like word arrays of set members, generative descriptions for determining set members, and fitness functions for determining fitness of a presented item for being a member of a set. Significance and interest values can be assigned to search categories to set threshold confidence levels for returning search results and for weighting the results, respectively. A user interface can present results in the form of browsing multiple hierarchical representations, wherein matching categories are differentiated from non-matching categories. Peer ratings can represent the ranking of search term results with relation to results using other search terms, providing an indication of the fitness of the search terms for returning satisfactory results.

Claims

1. A computer program tangibly stored on a computer-readable medium and configured to cause a computer to enable a user interface for encoding a graphical representation of an individual point of view (iPOV), the computer program comprising instructions to:

receive input from a user defining the graphical representation including at least one category;

retrieve unique identifiers for the at least one category from at least one of a knowledge database;

obtain significance and interest relations for the at least one category based on a placement of the at least one category on the graphical representation;

determine connections between the at least one category and data source to identify data sources having similar unique identifiers;

retrieve data sets from the data sources for the at least one category, the data sets being limited by the significance and interest relations;

apply a similarity analysis to the data sets to;

determine confidence levels for the at least one category, wherein the similarity analysis depends on a datatype of the data source and on the interest relations for the at least one category;

apply the significance relations for the at least one category to the confidence levels to obtain relevance scores for items in the data sets;

present, for items having a relevance score above a threshold, the relevance scores, confidence levels and items to the user in the context of the iPOV.

2. The computer program of claim 1, further comprising instructions to manipulate the graphical representation, wherein the instructions to manipulate include instructions to obtain multiple hierarchies having components related to the unique identifiers of iPOV for selection by the user.

3. The computer program of claim 2, wherein instructions to manipulate include instructions to combine the multiple hierarchies.

4. The computer program of claim 2, wherein instructions to manipulate include instructions to link the multiple hierarchies.

5. The computer program of claim 1, wherein the instructions to manipulate include instructions to modify at least one of positioning of elements of the iPOV in the graphical representation and connections between the elements of the iPOV in the graphical representation to affect the placement of the at least one category.

6. The computer program of claim 5, wherein the instructions to present include instructions to:

receive input from the user designating at least one member of the data sets as an interest member;

generate an updated graphical representation of the iPOV for each of the data sets, the updated graphical representation differentiating elements of the iPOV having at least one interest member.

7. The computer program of claim 1, wherein the instructions to apply include instructions to execute logic modules representing a set of category definitions embodied by the structure of the iPOV.

8. The computer program of claim 7, wherein the instructions to present include instructions to generate updated graphical representations of the iPOV based on execution of the logic modules, the confidence levels being associated with elements of the updated graphical representations corresponding to the components iPOV and representing whether each returned item of the data sets qualifies as a member of the at least one category.

9. The computer program of claim 7, wherein the instructions to present include instructions to execute the logic modules to apply set theory to determine set membership for components of the hierarchy, wherein the logic modules include prepositional logic regarding sets of attributes.

10. The computer program of claim 1, wherein the instructions to obtain significance and interest relations include instructions to receive significance and interest values input by the user.

11. The computer program of claim 1, wherein the instructions to obtain significance and interest relations include instructions to:

calculate significance and interest values based on at least one of locations of the at least one category of the iPOV in the graphical representation and positioning of connections between the at least one category of the iPOV in the graphical representation;

set thresholds for the confidence levels for at least one of the iPOV and each at least one category for inclusion of members of the data sets; and

set weighting functions for the at least one category based on a distribution pattern of the at least one category.

12. The computer program of claim 11, wherein the instructions to determine connections include instructions to compare components of the hierarchy with a connections database, the connections database including degrees of matching between data elements in the connections database and the data source metadata.

13. The computer program of claim 12, wherein the instructions to manipulate include instructions to modify at least one of positioning of elements of the iPOV in the graphical representation and connections between the elements of the iPOV in the graphical representation to affect the structure of the hierarchy.

14. The computer program of claim 13, wherein:

the instructions to apply include instructions to execute logic modules representing set theory rules embodied by the structure of the hierarchy; and

the instructions to present include instructions to execute the logic modules to unpack data structures in the data sets to generate updated graphical representations of the iPOV, the confidence levels being associated with elements of the updated graphical representations corresponding to the components of the hierarchy related to the data sets.

15. The computer program of claim 11, wherein the instructions to manipulate include instructions to modify at least one of positioning of elements of the iPOV in the graphical representation and connections between the elements of the iPOV in the graphical representation to affect the structure of the hierarchy.

16. The computer program of claim 11, wherein:

the instructions to apply include instructions to execute logic modules representing set theory rules embodied by the structure of the hierarchy; and

the instructions to present include instructions to execute the logic modules to unpack data structures in the data sets to generate updated graphical representations of the iPOV, the confidence levels being associated with elements of the updated graphical representations corresponding to the components of the hierarchy related to the data sets.

17. The computer program of claim 1, wherein the instructions to determine connections include instructions to compare the at least one category with a connections database, the connections database including degrees of matching between data elements in the connections database and the data source metadata.

18. The computer program of claim 1, wherein the instructions to present include instructions to:

receive input from the user designating at least one member of the data sets as an interest member; and

generate an updated graphical representation of the iPOV for each of the data sets related to the components of the hierarchy, the updated graphical representation including differentiated components of the hierarchy based on the differentiated components having at least one interest member.

29. The computer program of claim 17, wherein the instructions to obtain significance and interest relations comprise instructions to calculate significance and interest values based on at least one of locations of elements of the selected hierarchy and positioning of connections between elements of the selected hierarchy.

19. A computer-readable medium containing data structure for defining the set theory used to describe sets of data in the data structure, the data structure comprising:

data elements linked in sets wherein the sets include lists of data elements,

like word arrays of data elements with associated relativity factors,

generative descriptions for executing procedures to determine criteria for inclusion of data elements as set members based on the relativity factors,

assertive attributes for obtaining the generative descriptions, the assertive attributes assigned to the sets of data when the sets of data are defined by a system incorporating the data structure,

proposed attributes for obtaining the generative descriptions, the proposed attributes assigned to the sets of data when the sets of data are defined by a user of the data structure, and

fitness functions for executing procedures using the criteria to determine fitness of a data element for being a member of a set, the data elements within sets being linked by degrees of matching determined by the fitness function,

wherein at least one of the set members and the degrees of matching is presented to the user of the data structure.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 19, wherein the fitness functions include:

similarity procedures to specify characteristics qualifying a data element for being a member of a set; and

difference procedures to specify characteristics excluding a data element from being a member of a set.

21. A system for enabling multiple hierarchical points of view, comprising:

a host processor;

a user interface controlled by the host processor for inputting points of view to the system;

a connections generator controlled by the host processor and in communication with the user interface to receive the points of view and generate connections between elements in the points of view and metadata of data sources;

a connections database operated on by the connections generator in generating the connection and having a data structure including degrees of matching between data elements in the connections database and the metadata; and

matching applications controlled by the host processor and operating on the data sources to determine sets of data elements in the data sources having at least pre-selected degrees of matching with the elements in the points of view, the user interface displaying the data elements and degrees of matching for the data elements according to the points of view.

22. The system of claim 21, comprising a communications application controlled by the host processor and in communication with at least one network for connecting a user to the system.

23. The system of claim 21, comprising a significance and interest processor controlled by the host processor and in communication with the user interface to obtain significance and interest relations based on characteristics of the points of view, the degrees of matching between the data elements being associated with the significance and interest relations.

24. The system of claim 21, comprising executable logic modules controlled by the host processor and representing set theory rules embodied by the hierarchy structures, the logic modules unpacking data structures in the sets of data elements to format the results for output.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein the matching applications include:

similarity procedures to specify characteristics determining the sets of data elements having at least the pre-selected degrees of matching; and

difference procedures to specify characteristics excluding data elements from the sets.

26. A computer program tangibly stored on a computer-readable medium and configured to cause a computer to enable searching of data records, the computer program comprising instructions to:

receive input from a user;

determine at least one hierarchy having components matching the input;

present the at least one hierarchy to the user for manipulation and selection by the user to obtain a selected hierarchy;

obtain significance and interest relations for components of the selected hierarchy based on a structure of the hierarchy;

apply a connections generator to a connections database having a data structure including degrees of matching between data elements in the connections database and metadata of data sources to obtain connectivity data between elements in the selected hierarchy and the metadata of the data sources, the connectivity data identifying connected data sources;

search the connected data sources for data matching the components of the selected hierarchy based on the connectivity data to obtain matching data;

determine confidence levels for the matching data based on the significance and interest relations; and

present the matching data and the confidence levels to the user in the context of the selected hierarchy.

27. The computer program of claim 26, wherein the instructions to apply include instructions to execute logic modules representing set theory rules embodied by the structure of the hierarchy.

28. The computer program of claim 27, wherein the instructions to present comprise instructions to execute the logic modules to unpack data structures in the data sets to generate updated representations of the selected hierarchy.

30. A computer program tangibly stored on a computer-readable medium and configure to cause a computer to enable a user interface for encoding a configuration of a similarity engine, the computer program comprising instructions to:

receive input from a user defining an individual point of view (iPOV) related to categories of data;

obtain, based on the iPOV, significance and interest values and a match threshold to encode an equation;

manipulate the confirmation based on the iPOV to obtain a modified configuration of the similarity engine, the modified configuration limiting matching by the similarity engine to data resources consistent with the significance and interest values and the match threshold;

obtain, using the modified configuration, data sets having varying relationships to the categories and data of the categories, wherein each relationship represents a position along a similarity vector determined by the modified configuration of the similarity engine;

determine confidence levels for membership of data items in the categories along each similarity vector;

combine, utilizing the equation, the confidence levels into a relativity score for the data items, the relativity score providing a measure of a similarity distance of the data item to at least one the categories and the data of the categories; and

present the relativity scores to the user in a context of the iPOV.

31. The computer program of claim 30, wherein the instructions to present comprise instructions to present the relativity scores for each of the categories in a separate graphical representation, wherein the data items are distinguished based on the relativity scores to characterize the data items in accordance with the iPOV.