Adaptive grouping in a file network

• US 7,634,471 B2
• Filed: 03/30/2006
• Issued: 12/15/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Chen, Zheng, Zhang, Benyu, Li, Lei, Wang, Jian, Lin, Chenxi, Liu, Qiaoling
• Primary Examiner(s): Vital; Pierre M
• Assistant Examiner(s): Rostami; Mohammad S
• Application Number:
  US11/392,760
• Publication Number:
  US 20070239712A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,356 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/156 Query results presentation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/164 File meta data generation
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99936 Pattern matching access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99937 Sorting
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99938 Concurrency, e.g. lock management in shared database

Abstract

Extraction of semantic information and the generation of semantic attributes allows for improved organization and management of data. Semantic attributes are automatically generated and eliminate the need for manual entry of attribute information. A semantic file network may further be constructed based on similarities between files that are based on the semantic attribute information. Semantic links representing a semantic relationship may be built between similar or relevant files. In addition, user operations and user operation patterns may also be considered in building the file network. Semantic attributes and information may further facilitate browsing the file systems as well as improve the accuracy and speed of queries.

Claims

1. A computer readable medium storing computer readable instructions that, when executed, perform a method for adaptively grouping results of a semantic query, each result representing a file, the method comprising the steps of:

providing files of a file system, the files being organized into file system folders;

identifying user operations associated with files;

generating semantic attributes based on interpretation of the identified user operations associated with the files, at least one semantic attribute being generated when the interpretation indicates a user has simultaneously opened multiple files a first threshold number of times;

associating the generated semantic attributes with the files;

identifying a plurality of files associated with a semantic query by determining whether semantic attributes associated with the files match the semantic query, wherein the plurality of files includes files from different file system folders;

adaptively generating an implicit grouping of the identified files by;

determining whether one or more semantic attributes of a first file of the plurality of files matches the one or more semantic attributes of a second file of the plurality of files, and

in response to determining that the one or more semantic attributes of the first and second files match, grouping the first and second files;

creating a dynamic folder that is associated with the semantic query and the identified files associated with the semantic query, the dynamic folder for displaying the identified files of the semantic query according to the adaptively generated grouping

such that the dynamic folder is created based on one or more attributes not related to the organization of the file system and is associated with files from different file system folders;

determining whether a number of files exceeds a second threshold, wherein the second threshold identifies a limit to the number of files that the dynamic folder is able to display; and

in response to determining that the number of files exceeds the second threshold, ranking the files based on a similarity level of each of the plurality of files determined by the semantic query.

2. The computer readable medium of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

determining whether the first file contains the one or more semantic attributes; and

determining whether the second file contains the one or more semantic attributes.

3. The computer readable medium of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

determining whether the first file and second file are semantically related based on one or more user operations associated with one of the first file and the second file; and

in response to determining that the first file and the second file are semantically related, grouping the first file and the second file.

4. The computer readable medium of claim 3, wherein the one or more user operations include concurrently accessing the first file with the second file.

5. A computer readable medium storing computer readable instructions that, when executed, perform a method for adaptively grouping results from a semantic query, each result being a file, the method comprising the steps of:

providing files of a file system, the files being organized into file system folders;

identifying user operations associated with files;

generating semantic attributes based on interpretation of the identified user operations associated with the files;

associating the generated semantic attributes with the files;

identifying a plurality of files associated with a semantic query submitted by a user by determining whether semantic attributes associated with files match the semantic query;

retrieving a user profile of the user, wherein the user profile includes user preferences and user access patterns;

determining a grouping scheme for grouping the identified plurality of files based on the retrieved user profile;

grouping the identified files into dynamic folders in accordance with the determined grouping scheme such that multiple files from different file system folders are grouped into a dynamic folder; and

for each dynamic folder, displaying, in association with the dynamic folder, the identified files grouped into the dynamic folder,

determining whether a number of files exceeds a second threshold, wherein the second threshold identifies a limit to the number of files that the dynamic folder is able to display, and

in response to determining that the number of files exceeds the second threshold, ranking the files based on a similarity level of each of the plurality of files determined by the semantic query.

6. The computer readable medium of claim 5, wherein the user access patterns imply a relationship between a first file of the plurality of files and a second file of the plurality of files.

7. The computer readable medium of claim 5, wherein the user preferences include one or more preferred grouping attributes.

8. The computer readable medium of claim 5, further comprising the steps of:

extracting one or more semantic attributes from a first file of the plurality of files;

extracting one or more semantic attributes from a second file of the plurality of files; and

comparing the one or more semantic attributes of the first file with the one or more semantic attributes of the second file.

9. The computer readable medium of claim 8, wherein a relevance between the first file and the second file is determined based on the comparison.

10. The computer readable medium of claim 5, wherein the plurality of files are displayed in a dynamic window.

11. The computer readable medium of claim 10, further comprising the steps of:

grouping the first file and the second file based on the retrieved user profile;

creating a separate dynamic window; and

displaying the first file and the second file in the separate dynamic window.