System and method for identifying relationships between database records

• US 7,246,129 B2
• Filed: 08/01/2005
• Issued: 07/17/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 02/20/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Syngence Corp.
• Original Assignee: Syngence Corp.
• Inventors: Loafman, Kenneth W., Benno, Stephen A., Lawrence, P. Nick
• Primary Examiner(s): LEROUX, ETIENNE PIERRE
• Application Number:
  US11/195,158
• Publication Number:
  US 20060010144A1
• Time in Patent Office: 715 Days
• Field of Search: 707/1, 707/2, 707/9, 707/10, 707/200, 709/224, 704/9
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/313 Selection or weighting of terms for indexing

Abstract

A system for identifying relationships between database records includes a memory operable to store a plurality of records comprising a first record and at least one second record. Each record comprises at least one of a plurality of tokens. The system also includes one or more processors collectively operable to determine a weight associated with each of the tokens, compare at least one second record to the first record, and determine at least one relationship indicator based on the comparison and at least one of the weights. The at least one relationship indicator identifies a level of relationship between the first record and at least one second record.

Claims

1. A method for identifying relationships between database records, comprising:

selecting a first record in a plurality of records, each record comprising at least one of a plurality of tokens, wherein selecting the first record comprises submitting a synthetic document to a server that the server may use to generate the first record; and

wherein the server is operable to;

compare the first record to at least one other of the plurality of records; and

determine at least one relationship indicator based on the comparison and at least one of a plurality of weights associated with the tokens, the at least one relationship indicator identifying a level of relationship between the first record and at least one other record.

2. A method for identifying relationships between database records, comprising:

storing a first correlithm object and second correlithm object, the first and second correlithm objects each comprising a plurality of first entries, each first entry comprising one or more values;

storing a first significance vector and a second significance vector, the first and second significance vectors each comprising a plurality of second entries, each second entry comprising one or more significance values; and

determining a relationship indicator associated with the first and second correlithm objects, the relationship indicator determined using a formula of;

$\begin{array}{c}\mathrm{Relationship}\\ \mathrm{Indicator}\end{array}=\frac{\underset{i=1}{\overset{N}{\sum <br><br>}}<br><br>\left({\mathrm{Overlap}}_{{\mathrm{AS}}_i,{\mathrm{BS}}_i}*\left(\mathrm{Stnd}.<br><br>\mathrm{Dist}<br><br>{.}_i^2<br><br>-\underset{j=1}{\overset{M}{\sum <br><br>}}<br><br>{\left(A_j-B_j\right)}^2\right)\right)}{\underset{i=1}{\overset{N}{\sum <br><br>}}<br><br>\left({\mathrm{Overlap}}_{{\mathrm{AS}}_{i_i}<br><br>{\mathrm{AS}}_i}*\mathrm{Stnd}.<br><br>\mathrm{Dist}<br><br>{.}_i^2\right)}$

where N represents a number of first entries in the first and second correlithm objects, AS_i represents the significance values in the ith second entry of the first significance vector, BS_i represents the significance values in the ith second entry of the second significance vector, Overlap_ASi,BSi and Overlap_ASi,ASi each represents one of a minimum and a product of the identified significance values, Stnd. Dist._i represents a standard distance associated with the ith first entries of the first and second correlithm objects, M represents a number of values in the ith first entry of the first and second correlithm objects, A_j represents the jth value in the ith first entry of the first correlithm object, and B_j represents the jth value in the ith first entry of the second correlithm object.

3. A method for identifying relationships between database records, comprising:

storing a first correlithm object and a first significance vector, the first correlithm object comprising a plurality of first values, the first significance vector comprising a plurality of first significance values;

storing a second correlithm object and a second significance vector, the second correlithm object comprising a plurality of second values, the second significance vector comprising a plurality of second significance values;

determining a relationship indicator associated with the first and second correlithm objects, the relationship indicator determined using a formula of;

$\mathrm{Relationship}<br><br><br><br>\mathrm{Indicator}=\frac{\underset{i=1}{\overset{N}{\sum <br><br>}}<br><br>\left({\mathrm{Overlap}}_{{\mathrm{AS}}_i,{\mathrm{BS}}_i}*{\left(\frac{1}{6}-\left(A_i-B_i\right)\right)}^2\right)}{\underset{i=1}{\overset{N}{\sum <br><br>}}<br><br>\left({\mathrm{Overlap}}_{{\mathrm{AS}}_i,{\mathrm{AS}}_i}*\frac{1}{6}\right)}$

where N represents a number of first and second values in the first and second correlithm objects, AS_i represents the ith first significance value in the first significance vector, BS_i represents the ith second significance value in the second significance vector, Overlap_ASi,BSi and Overlap_ASi,ASi each represents one of a minimum and a product of the identified significance values, A_i represents the ith first value of the first correlithm object, and B_i represents the ith second value of the second correlithm object.

4. A system for identifying relationships between database records, comprising:

a memory operable to store;

a token table containing each of a plurality of tokens, a token representation associated with each token, and a weight associated with each token;

a records table containing one or more token representations associated with one or more tokens contained in each of a first record and a second record, the records table also identifying a number of times that the one or more tokens appear in each record; and

a records table index containing a location in the records table associated with each record and a record score associated with each record; and

one or more processors collectively operable to;

identify the one or more token representations associated with the first record and the one or more token representations associated with the second record using the records table index and the records table; and

determine a relationship indicator associated with the second record using the identified token representations, the record score associated with the first record, and at least one of the weights associated with the token representations, the at least one relationship indicator identifying a level of relationship between the first record and at least one second record.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the weight associated with one of the tokens is determined using a formula of:

$\mathrm{Weight}=-\log <br><br><br><br>\left(\frac{{\mathrm{Count}}_{\mathrm{Token}}}{{\mathrm{Total}}_{\mathrm{Token}}}\right)$

where COUNT_Token represents the number of times that the token appears in the plurality of records, and Total_Tokens represents the number of times that all tokens appear in the plurality of records.

6. The system of claim 4, wherein the record score associated with the first record is determined using a formula of:

$\mathrm{Record}<br><br><br><br>\mathrm{Score}=\underset{i=1}{\overset{k}{\sum <br><br>}}<br><br><br><br>\left({\mathrm{Weight}}_{\mathrm{Token}<br><br><br><br>k}*{\mathrm{Count}}_{\mathrm{Token}<br><br><br><br>k}\right)$

where k represents a number of unique tokens associated with the first record, Weight_{Token k} represents the weight associated with the kth unique token, and Count_{Token k} represents a number of times that the kth unique token appears in the first record.

7. The system of claim 4, wherein the one or more processors are further collectively operable to:

identify any common tokens, a common token comprising one of the tokens that appears in both the first record and the second record; and

identify a common count value for each common token, the common count value representing a minimum number of times that the common token appears in either the first record or the second record.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the relationship indicator associated with the second record when compared to the first record is determined using a formula of:

$\mathrm{Relationship}<br><br><br><br>\mathrm{Indicator}=\frac{\underset{i=1}{\overset{j}{\sum <br><br>}}<br><br><br><br>\left(\begin{array}{c}{\mathrm{Weight}}_{\mathrm{Token}<br><br><br><br>i}*\\ \mathrm{Common}<br><br><br><br>{\mathrm{Count}}_{\mathrm{Token}<br><br><br><br>i}\end{array}\right)}{{\mathrm{Score}}_{\mathrm{Target}<br><br><br><br>\mathrm{Record}}}$

where j represents a number of common tokens, Weight_{Token i} represents the weight associated with the ith common token, Common Count_{Token i} represents the common count value associated with the ith common token, and Score_{First record} represents the record score associated with the first record.

9. The system of claim 4, wherein:

a plurality of second records are each associated with at least one document;

the one or more processors are collectively operable to determine a plurality of relationship indicators associated with the plurality of second records; and

the one or more processors are further collectively operable to;

select one or more of the second records based on the relationship indicators; and

make the documents associated with the one or more second records available to a user.

10. The system of claim 4, wherein the one or more processors are collectively operable to allow a user to select the first record, wherein selecting the first record comprises at least one of selecting one of the plurality of records and submitting a document that the one or more processors may use to generate the first record.

11. The system of claim 4, wherein the one or more processors are further collectively operable to:

receive a query from a user;

identify one or more records that satisfy the query;

identify one or more documents associated with the one or more records; and

make the one or more documents available to the user.

12. The system of claim 4, wherein:

a first correlithm object and a first significance vector are associated with each of the tokens, each first correlithm object comprising a plurality of values defining a first point in a particular space, the particular space defined by a plurality of dimensions and including a plurality of points; and

a second correlithm object and a second significance vector are associated with each of the first record and the second record, each second correlithm object comprising at least one of the first correlithm objects.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein:

a distance between one of the first points and each of the plurality of points in one of the particular spaces defines a distribution having a standard deviation; and

a number of values in one of the first correlithm objects associated with one of the tokens may be determined using a formula of;

Number of Values=┌

Weight_Token*Standard Deviation┐

where Weight_Token represents the weight associated with the token, and Standard Deviation represents the standard deviation of the distribution.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein one of the first significance vectors comprises a plurality of significance values, each significance value determined using a formula of:

$\mathrm{Significance}<br><br><br><br>\mathrm{Value}=\frac{{\mathrm{Weight}}_{\mathrm{Token}}*\mathrm{Standard}<br><br><br><br>\mathrm{Deviation}}{\mathrm{Number}<br><br><br><br>\mathrm{of}<br><br><br><br>\mathrm{Values}}.$

15. The system of claim 12, wherein:

the second correlithm object comprises one or more first entries and the second significance vector comprises one or more second entries, at least one first entry comprising one of the first correlithm objects; and

each first entry in the second correlithm objects is associated with an instance of one of the tokens.

16. The system of claim 12, wherein:

the second correlithm object comprises one or more first entries and the second significance vector comprises one or more second entries, at least one first entry comprising one of the first correlithm objects; and

each first entry in the second correlithm objects is associated with one of the unique tokens.

17. The system of claim 12, wherein:

the second correlithm object comprises one or more first entries and the second significance vector comprises one or more second entries, at least one first entry comprising one of the first correlithm objects;

each first entry in the second correlithm object is also associated with one second entry in the second significance vector;

the relationship indicator associated with the second record when compared to the first record is determined using a formula of;

$\mathrm{Relationship}<br><br><br><br>\mathrm{Indicator}=\frac{\underset{i=1}{\overset{N}{\sum <br><br>}}<br><br>\left({\mathrm{Overlap}}_{{\mathrm{AS}}_i,{\mathrm{BS}}_i}*\left(\mathrm{Stnd}.<br><br>\mathrm{Dist}<br><br>{.}_i^2<br><br>-\underset{j=1}{\overset{M}{\sum <br><br>}}<br><br>{\left(A_j-B_j\right)}^2\right)\right)}{\underset{i=1}{\overset{N}{\sum <br><br>}}<br><br>\left({\mathrm{Overlap}}_{{\mathrm{AS}}_i,{\mathrm{AS}}_i}*\mathrm{Stnd}.<br><br>\mathrm{Dist}<br><br>{.}_i^2\right)}$

where N represents the number of first entries in the second correlithm objects and the number of second entries in the second significance vectors, AS_i represents significance values in the ith second entry of the second significance vector associated with the first record, BS_i represents significance values in the ith second entry of the second significance vector associated with the second record, Overlap_ASi,BSi and Overlap_ASi,ASi each represents an overlap value between the identified significance values in the second significance vectors, Stnd. Dist._i represents a standard distance associated with the first correlithm objects contained in the ith first entries of the second correlithm objects, M represents the number of values in the first correlithm objects contained in the ith first entries of the second correlithm objects, A_j represents the jth value of the first correlithm object contained in the ith first entry of the second correlithm object associated with the first record, and B_j represents the jth value of the first correlithm object contained in the ith first entry of the second correlithm object associated with the second record; and

wherein Overlap_ASi,BSi and Overlap_ASi,ASi each comprises one of a minimum of the identified significance values in the second significance vectors and a product of the identified significance values in the second significance vectors.

18. The system of claim 4, wherein:

at least one token comprises a first correlithm object; and

at least one of the records comprises a second correlithm object, the second correlithm object comprising at least one of the first correlithm objects.

19. A method for identifying relationships between database records, comprising:

identifying one or more token representations associated with a first record and one or more token representations associated with a second record using a records table index and a records table, the records table containing the one or more token representations associated with one or more tokens contained in each of the records, the records table also identifying a number of times that the one or more tokens appear in each record, the records table index containing a location in the records table associated with each record and a record score associated with each record; and

determining a relationship indicator associated with the second record using the identified token representations, the record score associated with the first record, and at least one of a plurality of weights associated with the token representations, the at least one relationship indicator identifying a level of relationship between the first record and at least one second record.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the weight associated with one of the tokens is determined using a formula of:

$\mathrm{Weight}=-\log <br><br><br><br>\left(\frac{{\mathrm{Count}}_{\mathrm{Token}}}{{\mathrm{Total}}_{\mathrm{Token}}}\right)$

where Count_Token represents the number of times that the token appears in the plurality of records, and Total_Tokens represents the number of times that all tokens appear in the plurality of records.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein the record score associated with the first record is determined using a formula of:

$\mathrm{Record}<br><br><br><br>\mathrm{Score}=\underset{i=1}{\overset{k}{\sum <br><br>}}<br><br><br><br>\left({\mathrm{Weight}}_{\mathrm{Token}<br><br><br><br>k}*{\mathrm{Count}}_{\mathrm{Token}<br><br><br><br>k}\right)$

where k represents a number of unique tokens associated with the first record, Weight_{Token k} represents the weight associated with the kth unique token, and Count_{Token k} represents a number of times that the kth unique token appears in the first record.

22. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

identifying any common tokens, a common token comprising one of the tokens that appears in both the first record and the second record; and

identifying a common count value for each common token, the common count value representing a minimum number of times that the common token appears in either the first record or the second record.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the relationship indicator associated with the second record when compared to the first record is determined using a formula of:

$\mathrm{Relationship}<br><br><br><br>\mathrm{Indicator}=\frac{\underset{i=1}{\overset{j}{\sum <br><br>}}<br><br><br><br>\left(\begin{array}{c}{\mathrm{Weight}}_{\mathrm{Token}<br><br><br><br>i}*\\ \mathrm{Common}<br><br><br><br>{\mathrm{Count}}_{\mathrm{Token}<br><br><br><br>i}\end{array}\right)}{{\mathrm{Score}}_{\mathrm{Target}<br><br><br><br>\mathrm{Record}}}$

where j represents a number of common tokens, Weight_{Token i} represents the weight associated with the ith common token, Common Count_{Token i} represents the common count value associated with the ith common token, and Score_{First record} represents the record score associated with the first record.

24. The method of claim 19, wherein:

a plurality of second records are each associated with at least one document;

a plurality of relationship indicators associated with the plurality of second records are determined; and

further comprising;

selecting one or more of the second records based on the relationship indicators; and

making the documents associated with the one or more second records available to a user.

25. The method of claim 19, wherein:

a first correlithm object and a first significance vector are associated with each of the tokens, each first correlithm object comprising a plurality of values defining a first point in a particular space, the particular space defined by a plurality of dimensions and including a plurality of points; and

a second correlithm object and a second significance vector are associated with each of the first record and the second record, each second correlithm object comprising at least one of the first correlithm objects.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein:

a distance between one of the first points and each of the plurality of points in one of the particular spaces defines a distribution having a standard deviation;

a number of values in one of the first correlithm objects associated with one of the tokens may be determined using a formula of;

Number of Values=┌

Weight_Token*Standard Deviation┐

where Weight_Token represents the weight associated with the token, and Standard Deviation represents the standard deviation of the distribution; and

one of the first significance vectors comprises a plurality of significance values, each significance value determined using a formula of;

$\mathrm{Significance}<br><br><br><br>\mathrm{Value}=\frac{{\mathrm{Weight}}_{\mathrm{Token}}*\mathrm{Standard}<br><br><br><br>\mathrm{Deviation}}{\mathrm{Number}<br><br><br><br>\mathrm{of}<br><br><br><br>\mathrm{Values}}.$

27. The method of claim 25, wherein:

the second correlithm object comprises one or more first entries and the second significance vector comprises one or more second entries, at least one first entry comprising one of the first correlithm objects; and

each first entry in the second correlithm objects is associated with an instance of one of the tokens.

28. The method of claim 25, wherein:

the second correlithm object comprises one or more first entries and the second significance vector comprises one or more second entries, at least one first entry comprising one of the first correlithm objects; and

each first entry in the second correlithm objects is associated with one of the unique tokens.

29. The method of claim 25, wherein:

the second correlithm object comprises one or more first entries and the second significance vector comprises one or more second entries, at least one first entry comprising one of the first correlithm objects;

each first entry in the second correlithm object is also associated with one second entry in the second significance vector;

the relationship indicator associated with the second record when compared to the first record is determined using a formula of;

$\mathrm{Relationship}<br><br><br><br>\mathrm{Indicator}=\frac{\underset{i=1}{\overset{N}{\sum <br><br>}}<br><br><br><br>\left(\begin{array}{c}{\mathrm{Overlap}}_{{\mathrm{AS}}_i,{\mathrm{BS}}_i}*\\ \left(\mathrm{Stnd}.<br><br>\mathrm{Dist}<br><br>{.}_i^2<br><br>-\underset{j=1}{\overset{M}{\sum <br><br>}}<br><br><br><br>{\left(A_j-B_j\right)}^2\right)\end{array}\right)}{\underset{i=1}{\overset{N}{\sum <br><br>}}<br><br><br><br>\left({\mathrm{Overlap}}_{{\mathrm{AS}}_{i_i}<br><br>{\mathrm{AS}<br><br>}_i}*\mathrm{Stnd}.<br><br>\mathrm{Dist}<br><br>{.}_i^2\right)}$

where N represents the number of first entries in the second correlithm objects and the number of second entries in the second significance vectors, AS_i represents significance values in the ith second entry of the second significance vector associated with the first record, BS_i represents significance values in the ith second entry of the second significance vector associated with the second record, Overlap_ASi,BSi and Overlap_ASi,ASi each represents an overlap value between the identified significance values in the second significance vectors, Stnd. Dist._i represents a standard distance associated with the first correlithm objects contained in the ith first entries of the second correlithm objects, M represents the number of values in the first correlithm objects contained in the ith first entries of the second correlithm objects, A_j represents the jth value of the first correlithm object contained in the ith first entry of the second correlithm object associated with the first record, and B_j represents the jth value of the first correlithm object contained in the ith first entry of the second correlithm object associated with the second record; and

wherein Overlap_ASi,BSi and Overlap_ASi,ASi each comprises one of a minimum of the identified significance values in the second significance vectors and a product of the identified significance values in the second significance vectors.

30. The method of claim 19, wherein:

at least one token comprises a first correlithm object; and

at least one of the records comprises a second correlithm object, the second correlithm object comprising at least one of the first correlithm objects.

31. Software for identifying relationships between database records, the software embodied on at least one computer readable medium and operable when executed to:

identify one or more token representations associated with a first record and one or more token representations associated with a second record using a records table index and a records table, the records table containing the one or more token representations associated with one or more tokens contained in each of the records, the records table also identifying a number of times that the one or more tokens appear in each record, the records table index containing a location in the records table associated with each record and a record score associated with each record; and

determine a relationship indicator associated with the second record using the identified token representations, the record score associated with the first record, and at least one of a plurality of weights associated with the token representations, the at least one relationship indicator identifying a level of relationship between the first record and at least one second record.

32. A system for identifying relationships between database records, comprising:

means for identifying one or more token representations associated with a first record and one or more token representations associated with a second record using a records table index and a records table, the records table containing the one or more token representations associated with one or more tokens contained in each of the records, the records table also identifying a number of times that the one or more tokens appear in each record, the records table index containing a location in the records table associated with each record and a record score associated with each record; and

means for determining a relationship indicator associated with the second record using the identified token representations, the record score associated with the first record, and at least one of a plurality of weights associated with the token representations, the at least one relationship indicator identifying a level of relationship between the first record and at least one second record.