Data object visualization

• US 7,555,471 B2
• Filed: 01/27/2006
• Issued: 06/30/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 01/27/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Kehlenbeck, Alexander, Alpert, David B., Reynar, Jeffrey C., Gordon, Michael, Vespe, David J., Hogue, Andrew W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Starks, Jr.; Wilbert L
• Application Number:
  US11/342,290
• Publication Number:
  US 20070203867A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,250 Days
• Field of Search: 706/48, 707/1, 707/5, 707/101
• US Class Current: 706/48
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/02 Knowledge representation; Symbolic representation

Abstract

A fact repository stores objects. Each object includes a collection of facts, where a fact comprises an attribute and a value. A set of objects from the fact repository are designated for analysis. The presentation engine presents the facts of the objects in a user interface (UI) having a table. Through manipulation of the UI, an end-user can add or remove facts from the table, and sort the table based on the values of particular facts. The presentation engine also presents the facts of the objects in a UI having a graph. Through manipulation of the UI, the end-user can add or remove facts from the graph, and can sort the facts shown in the graph based on values that are shown, or not shown, in the graph. The presentation engine can further present the facts of the objects in UIs including maps and timelines.

Claims

1. A computer-based system for presenting facts, comprising:

an object access module adapted to establish a set of objects in response to a search query received from a user, each object having a set of facts stored in a computer memory containing information about an entity associated with the object, each fact having an attribute indicating a property of the entity and a corresponding value describing the indicated property;

an interface module adapted to provide a user interface for allowing the user to identify one or more facts of the objects in the set to present and for allowing the user to manipulate a representation of the identified facts; and

a presentation module for presenting via the user interface the representation of the identified facts of the objects in the set, the representation describing the attributes and corresponding values of the identified facts.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a fact repository adapted to store a collection of objects;

wherein the object access module establishes the set of objects responsive to a query executed against the collection of objects in the fact repository.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the object access module establishing the set of objects comprises the object access module receiving a designation of one or more objects returned in response to the query executed against the collection of objects in the fact repository.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein a fact has an associated metric and further comprising:

a scoring module adapted to produce scores for the facts responsive to the facts'"'"' metrics;

wherein the presentation module is further adapted to present representations of facts responsive to the facts'"'"' scores.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein a metric comprises:

a confidence level indicating a likelihood that the fact is correct; and

an importance value indicating a relevance of the fact to its associated object.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a scoring module adapted to determine a commonality of the attributes of the objects in the set;

wherein the presentation module is further adapted to present representations of facts responsive to the attributes'"'"' commonality.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the presentation module comprises:

a tabular presentation module adapted to generate a table describing the identified facts of the objects in the set.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the interface module is further adapted to provide a user interface enabling an end-user to selectively indicate which facts of the objects the tabular presentation module includes in the table.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the presentation module comprises:

a graphical presentation module adapted to generate a graph describing the identified facts of the objects in the set.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the graphical presentation module is further adapted to determine a type of graph to generate responsive to a value of an identified fact.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the graph describes values of the identified facts in an order, and wherein the order is selected responsive to values of a fact not described in the graph.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein a fact of an object comprises a date and wherein the presentation module is further adapted to generate a timeline displaying the date of the fact.

13. A computer program product having a computer-readable medium having computer program instructions embodied therein for presenting facts, the computer program instructions comprising:

an object access module adapted to establish a set of objects in response to a search query received from a user, each object having a set of facts stored in a computer memory containing information about an entity associated with the object, each fact having an attribute indicating a property of the entity and a corresponding value describing the indicated property;

an interface module adapted to provide a user interface for allowing the user to identify one or more facts of the objects in the set to present and for allowing the user to manipulate a representation of the identified facts; and

a presentation module for presenting via the user interface the representation of the identified facts of the objects in the set, the representation describing the attributes and corresponding values of the identified facts.

14. The computer program product of claim 13, further comprising:

a fact repository adapted to store a collection of objects;

wherein the object access module establishes the set of objects responsive to a query executed against the collection of objects in the fact repository.

15. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein a fact has an associated metric and further comprising:

a scoring module adapted to produce scores for the facts responsive to the facts'"'"' metrics;

wherein the presentation module is further adapted to present representations of facts responsive to the facts'"'"' scores.

16. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein a metric comprises:

a confidence level indicating a likelihood that the fact is correct; and

an importance value indicating a relevance of the fact to its associated object.

17. The computer program product of claim 13, further comprising:

a scoring module adapted to determine a commonality of the attributes of the objects in the set;

wherein the presentation module is further adapted to present representations of facts responsive to the attributes'"'"' commonality.

18. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the presentation module comprises:

a tabular presentation module adapted to generate a table describing the identified facts of the objects in the set.

19. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein the interface module is further adapted to provide a user interface enabling an end-user to selectively indicate which facts of the objects the tabular presentation module includes in the table.

20. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein the presentation module comprises:

a graphical presentation module adapted to generate a graph describing the identified facts of the objects in the set.

21. The computer program product of claim 20, wherein the graphical presentation module is further adapted to determine a type of graph to generate responsive to a value of an identified fact.

22. The computer program product of claim 20, wherein the graph describes values of the identified facts in an order, and wherein the order is selected responsive to values of a fact not described in the graph.

23. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein a fact of an object comprises a date and wherein the presentation module is further adapted to generate a timeline displaying the date of the fact.

24. A computer-implemented method of presenting facts, comprising:

at a client computer system comprising a processor, memory, and a display device,

establishing a set of objects in response to a search query received from a user, each object having a set of facts stored in the memory containing information about an entity associated with the object, each fact having an attribute indicating a property of the entity and a corresponding value describing the indicated property;

identifying one or more facts of the objects in the set to present;

presenting a visual representation of the identified facts of the objects in the set on the display device, the representation describing the attributes and corresponding values of the identified facts; and

manipulating the representation of the identified facts displayed on the display device in response to input from the user.

25. The method of claim 24, further comprising:

executing a query against a repository storing a collection of objects to identify a set of objects satisfying the query.

26. The method of claim 24, wherein a fact has an associated metric and further comprising:

scoring the facts responsive to the facts'"'"' metrics to produce scores for the facts; and

identifying the one or more facts of the objects in the set to present responsive to the facts'"'"' scores.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein a metric comprises:

a confidence level indicating a likelihood that the fact is correct; and

an importance value indicating a relevance of a fact to its associated object.

28. The method of claim 24, further comprising:

identifying a commonality of the attributes of the objects in the set; and

identifying the one or more facts of the objects in the set to present responsive to the commonality of the attributes.

29. The method of claim 24, the presenting further comprises:

presenting a table describing the identified facts of the objects in the set.

30. The method of claim 29, further comprising:

providing a user interface enabling an end-user to selectively indicate which facts of the objects to include in the table.

31. The method of claim 24, wherein the presenting further comprises:

generating a graph describing the identified facts of the objects in the set.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein the presenting further comprises:

determining a type of graph to generate responsive to a value of an identified fact.

33. The method of claim 31, wherein the graph describes values of the identified facts in an order, and further comprising:

ordering the values of the identified facts in an order generated responsive to values of a fact not described in the graph.

34. The method of claim 24, wherein a fact of an object comprises a date and wherein the presenting further comprises:

generating a timeline displaying the date of the fact.

35. A computer-implemented method of presenting facts of objects stored in a fact repository, comprising:

at a client computer system comprising a processor, memory, and a display device,

establishing a collection of objects responsive to at least one query to the fact repository initiated by a user, each object in the collection having a set of facts stored in the memory containing information about an entity associated with the object, each fact having an attribute indicating a property of the entity and a corresponding value describing the indicated property;

receiving input from the user identifying one or more facts of the objects in the collection to present in a visual manner;

providing the user with a visual representation of the identified facts of the objects on the display device, the visual representation describing the attributes and corresponding values of the identified facts; and

manipulating the representation of the identified facts displayed on the display device in response to input from the user.

36. The method of claim 35, wherein providing the user with a visual representation comprises:

generating a graphical representation that emphasizes distinctions between facts of different objects.

37. The method of claim 36, wherein a fact is comprised of an attribute and a value, wherein multiple objects possess a same attribute, and wherein the graphical representation emphasizes distinctions between different values of an attribute possessed by multiple objects.