Knowledge discovery tool relationship generation

• US 7,904,411 B2
• Filed: 05/11/2005
• Issued: 03/08/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/04/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Accenture Global Services Limited (Accenture PLC)
• Original Assignee: Accenture Global Services Limited (Accenture PLC)
• Inventors: Bechtel, Michael E., Mathur, Sanjay, Arago, Jordi
• Primary Examiner(s): Sparks; Donald
• Assistant Examiner(s): Bharadwaj; Kalpana
• Application Number:
  US11/128,427
• Publication Number:
  US 20060179027A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,127 Days
• Field of Search: 707/3, 707/4, 707/6, 707/7, 706/15, 704/9, 704/231, 704/235, 710/302
• US Class Current: 706/50
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/36 Creation of semantic tools, e.g. ontology or thesauri

Abstract

A system for managing a knowledge model defining a plurality of entities is provided. The system includes an extraction tool for extracting data items from disparate data sources that determines if the data item has been previously integrated into the knowledge model. The system also includes an integration tool for integrating the data item into the knowledge model that integrates the data item into the knowledge model only if the data item has not been previously integrated into the knowledge model. Additionally, a relationship tool for identifying, automatically, a plurality of relationships between the plurality of entities may also be provided. The system may also include a data visualization tool for presenting the plurality of entities and the plurality of relationships.

Claims

1. A method to determine and display indicia of a relationship definition between data items that have been integrated into a database from a plurality of data sources associated with a domain type, comprising:

providing, in the database, a plurality of entity tables relevant to the domain type, wherein a system server stores data items extracted from the plurality of data sources in respective fields of the plurality of entity tables, including storing a first data item extracted from a first data source in a first field and storing a second data item extracted from the first data source in a second field, wherein the plurality of data sources includes both structured and unstructured data sources, and wherein the system server is configured to;

populate a first row of a direct relationship table having a plurality of rows with a first direct relationship definition indicating that the first and second fields store respective data items that have been extracted from the first data source,

search the direct relationship table for a second row having a second direct relationship definition indicating that a third field stores a third data item that has been extracted from a second data source from which the first data item has also been extracted, wherein the second data source is different than the first data source,

determine a transitive relationship definition, based on the first direct and second direct relationship definitions from the direct relationship table, indicating that the second field is related to the third field, wherein the transitive relationship definition is based on at least two separate relationships between data fields, and

store the third relationship definition in a transitive relationship table;

displaying the second data item on a graphical user interface on a display; and

receiving an activation by a user of the second data item and responsively displaying, on the graphical user interface, indicia representing the third relationship definition.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the unstructured data sources are selected from a group consisting of:

an article, a document, a web page, an HTML file, and a spreadsheet.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the structured data sources include XML files.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the first, second, and third data items are integrated into the database from a plurality of structured data sources.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein each entity table includes a respective entity table name field and at least one respective attribute field.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the direct relationship definition is between a first entity table name field and a second entity table name field.

7. The method of claim 5 wherein the direct relationship definition is between a first entity table name field of a first entity table and an attribute field of a second entity table.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the third relationship definition is stored as a one-hop transitive link.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising establishing within the database a two-hop transitive link between the second data item and a fourth data item if:

the third data item and the fourth data item were both extracted from a third data source.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising establishing within the database a multi-hop transitive link between the second data item and a fourth data item based on a plurality of data items extracted from a plurality of structured data sources.

11. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

storing in the database an entity table that contains attributes about an unstructured data source, including a title of the unstructured data source; and

establishing in the database a field-to-text link between a data item integrated from a structured data source and the entity table if the integrated data item is mentioned in the unstructured data source.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the unstructured data source is one of:

an article, a document, a web page, an HTML file, and a spreadsheet.

13. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

storing in the database an entity table that contains attributes about an unstructured data source, including a title of the unstructured data source; and

establishing in the database a proximity link between two data items integrated from respective structured data sources if the two data items are both mentioned in the unstructured data source.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the proximity link is further based upon a proximity definition selected from a group consisting of:

proximity within a paragraph, proximity within a sentence, proximity within a predetermined number of words, and proximity within a spreadsheet.

15. The method of claim 1 further comprising assigning confidence levels to relationship types in the database, wherein a first confidence level is assigned to a first relationship type, a second confidence level is assigned to a second relationship type, a third confidence level is assigned to a third relationship type, and a fourth confidence level is assigned to a fourth relationship type, wherein

the first relationship type is between two data items that have been extracted from a single structured data source,

the second relationship type is between a data item from a structured data source and an entity table that identifies an unstructured data source that mentions the data item from the structured data source,

the third relationship type is a one-hop transitive relationship, and

the fourth relationship type is between two or more data items integrated from different, respective structured data sources, and mentioned in a single unstructured data source.

16. The method of claim 15 further comprising:

displaying, on the graphical user interface, multiple panels and an active panel data item in an active panel of the multiple panels; and

displaying in other panels of the multiple panels, simultaneously with the display of the active panel data item, entity tables having data items that have a relationship to the active panel data item,

wherein respective relationships between the active panel data item and respective data items displayed in the other panels are each one of;

the first relationship type, the second relationship type, the third relationship type, and the fourth relationship type.

17. The method of claim 16 further comprising displaying multiple indicia on the graphical user interface, wherein each of the multiple indicia respectively conveys to the user one of:

the first relationship type, the second relationship type, the third relationship type and the fourth relationship type.

18. The method of claim 1 wherein the direct relationship table is identical to the transitive relationship table.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein the direct relationship table and the transitive relationship table are the same table.