Using hyperbolic trees to visualize data generated by patent-centric and group-oriented data processing

• US 7,523,126 B2
• Filed: 06/22/2002
• Issued: 04/21/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/02/1997
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: DataCloud Technologies, LLC (IP Investments Group LLC)
• Original Assignee: Rose Blush Software LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Park, Brian, Hohmann, Luke, Rappaport, Irving S., Rivette, Kevin G., Navarrete, Jorge A., Rabb, Charles Jr., Goretsky, David, Jackson, Adam, Thornthwaite, Warren, Puglia, David, Smith, David W.
• Primary Examiner(s): ROBINSON, GRETA LEE
• Application Number:
  US10/178,540
• Publication Number:
  US 20030046307A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,495 Days
• Field of Search: 707/102, 707/100, 707/104.1, 707/101, 715/526, 715/200, 715/205, 715/234, 715/273, 715/700, 345/530
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/34 Browsing; Visualisation therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/353 into predefined classes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/382 using citations hypermedia G06F16/94
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/904 Browsing; Visualisation therefor for navigating the web G06F16/954; browsing optimisation for the web G06F16/957
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/93 Document management systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2216/11 Patent retrieval
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/917 Text
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/924 Patent procedure
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/933 Citation analysis
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99932 Access augmentation or optimizing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

A method of displaying data, comprising the steps of defining a set of documents, each document having a unique identification and optionally citing other documents by their respective unique identification, the set being defined by selecting at least one starting document, with the set further comprising documents being included based on predetermined relationships with at least one other document in the set; generating a hierarchal tree representation of the at least one subset of documents, a subset inclusion and hierarchy thereof being defined by said predetermined relationships between documents within the set; and selectively focusing on a node of said hierarchal tree, to define a graphic display representation of at least a portion thereof to emphasize the selected focus while depicting the hierarchal relationships.

Claims

1. A method of displaying data, comprising the steps of:

(1) defining a set of documents, each document having a unique identification, the set being defined by selecting at least one starting document, with the set further comprising documents being included based on predetermined relationships to information derived from said at least one starting document;

(2) generating a hierarchal tree representation of at least one subset of the set of documents, a subset inclusion and hierarchy thereof being defined by said predetermined relationships between documents within the set; and

(3) selectively focusing on a node of said hierarchal tree, to define a graphic display representation of at least a portion thereof to emphasize the selected focus while depicting the hierarchal relationships.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the relationships used for generating the hierarchal tree representation comprise forward and/or the backward citation references between documents with the set.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the relationships used for generating the hierarchal tree representation are derived from analysis of at least one document.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the relationships used for generating the hierarchal tree representation are derived from an external source.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein said generating step is conducted by a predetermined automated process.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein said subset inclusion is determined by a predetermined automatic process.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein said subset inclusion is based on a composite of a plurality of independent factors.

8. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of using an intelligent agent as part of a human user interface.

9. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of receiving an annotation for association with at least one of the set of documents, the at least one subset of documents, the hierarchal tree representation and the graphic display representation.

10. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of applying domain-specific intelligence.

11. The method according to claim 1, wherein said graphic display representation comprises a hyperbolic tree.

12. The method according to claim 1, wherein the documents comprise patents.

13. The method according to claim 1, wherein the documents comprise patents and the unique identification comprises a patent number.

14. The method according to claim 1, wherein the documents comprise patents and said predetermined relationships comprise analysis of citation relationships derived from a coded listing associated with each patent document.

15. The method according to claim 1, wherein said selectively focusing causes a dynamic reorganization of said graphic display representation.

16. The method according to claim 1, wherein said displayed portion of said hierarchal tree representation is defined by a hierarchal distance from said selectively focused node.

17. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of receiving a number of hierarchal tree levels to display.

18. The method according to claim 1, wherein said graphic display representation comprises content from within the documents.

19. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of emphasizing documents of said hierarchal tree according to a time-based criteria associated with a document.

20. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of extracting a hierarchy from a document and including a representation of said extracted hierarchy in said presented hierarchy.

21. The method according to claim 1, wherein nodes of said hierarchal tree are hyperlinked to associated documents.

22. The method according to claim 1, wherein nodes of said hierarchal tree are hyperlinked to associated portions of documents.

23. The method according to claim 1, wherein said emphasis of a selected focus comprises displaying a greater detail of information about the selected focus than unselected nodes.

24. The method according to claim 1, wherein said emphasis of a selected focus comprises displaying a greater detail of information derived from the selected focus than unselected nodes.

25. The method according to claim 1, wherein said emphasis of a selected focus comprises displaying a greater detail of information relating to the selected focus than unselected nodes, wherein said greater detail information comprises hyperlinks.

26. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of semantically analyzing a document to extract an implicit hierarchy therefrom.

27. The method according to claim 1, wherein said hierarchal tree representation is derived based on a cluster analysis over the set of documents.

28. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of performing a relevancy analysis of documents.

29. The method according to claim 1, wherein the displayed graphic display representation comprises a ranked relevancy further comprising the step of performing a relevancy ranking of the documents.

30. A computer readable storage medium having computer program code recorded thereon, that when executed by a processor, causes a processor to display data by a method, the method comprising:

(1) defining a set of documents, each document having a unique identification, the set being defined by selecting at least one starting document, with the set further comprising documents being included based on predetermined relationships to information derived from said at least one starting document;

(2) generating a hierarchal tree representation of at least one subset of the set of documents, a subset inclusion and hierarchy thereof being defined by said predetermined relationships between documents within the set; and

(3) selectively focusing on a node of said hierarchal tree, to define a graphic display representation of at least a portion thereof to emphasize the selected focus while depicting the hierarchal relationships.

31. An apparatus for displaying data, comprising:

(1) a database storing a set of documents, each document having a unique identification, the set being defined by selecting at least one starting document, with the set further comprising documents being included based on predetermined relationships to information derived from said at least one starting document;

(2) a linkage map storing information defining a hierarchal tree representation of at least one subset of the set of documents, a subset inclusion and hierarchy thereof being defined by said predetermined relationships between documents within the set; and

(3) a graphic display output, receiving an input selectively focusing on a node of said hierarchal tree representation, to define a graphic display representation of at least a portion of the hierarchal relationships, with emphasis on the selected focus.