Method and apparatus for semiotic correlation

• US 7,912,701 B1
• Filed: 05/04/2007
• Issued: 03/22/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/04/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Virtualsynaptics, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Igniteip Capital IA Special Management LLC
• Inventors: Gray, Wayne Randal, Shah, Radhika Suryakant
• Primary Examiner(s): Vo, Huyen X.
• Application Number:
  US11/744,795
• Time in Patent Office: 1,418 Days
• Field of Search: 704/1, 704/3, 704/4, 704/7, 704/9, 704/10, 704/257, 715/236, 707/501, 707/3, 707/4
• US Class Current: 704/9
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3344 using natural language analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/367 Ontology
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/20 Natural language analysis semantic analysis of natural language G06F40/30
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/30 Semantic analysis

Abstract

A method for a computer system includes receiving an input source comprising a plurality of sentences, determining a set of semiotic relationships from the plurality of sentences, performing a contextual correlation in response to the set of semiotic relationships and in response to an ideas index to determine a reduced set of semiotic relationships from the set of semiotic relationships, omparing the reduced set of semiotic relationships to each of a plurality of semiotic relationships associated with a set of documents to determine comparison values, determining a reduced set of documents from the set of documents in response to the comparison values, and outputting portions of the reduced set of documents to a user.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by a computer system, an input source comprising a plurality of sentences;

determining, by the computer system, a set of semiotic relationships from the plurality of sentences;

performing, by the computer system, a contextual correlation in response to the set of semiotic relationships and in response to an ideas index to determine a reduced set of semiotic relationships from the set of semiotic relationships;

comparing, by the computer system, the reduced set of semiotic relationships to each of a plurality of semiotic relationships associated with a set of documents to determine comparison values;

determining, by the computer system, a reduced set of documents from the set of documents in response to the comparison values; and

outputting, by the computer system, portions of the reduced set of documents to a user.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

determining an ordering for the reduced set of documents in response to the comparison values; and

wherein outputting comprises outputting portions of the reduced set of documents to the user in response to the ordering.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein determining the set of semiotic relationships comprises:

determining a plurality of signs from the plurality of sentences; and

determining grammatical relationships for signs in each of the plurality of sentences.

4. The method of claim 3:

wherein the set of semiotic relationships comprise a set of concepts; and

wherein the set of concepts comprises signs and respective grammatical relationships for each of the plurality of sentences.

5. The method of claim 4:

wherein performing the contextual correlation comprises determining a subset of concepts from the set of concepts in response to the ideas index;

wherein the ideas index comprises an ideas ontology or taxonomy.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein a representation of the reduced set of semiotic relationships comprises a thematic bitmask.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the representation of the reduced set of semiotic relationships also comprises a data structure identifying association between bits within the thematic bitmask and semiotic relationships from the reduced set of semiotic relationships.

8. A computer system comprising:

a memory; and

a processor coupled with the memory, the processor configured to;

receive an input source comprising a plurality of sentences;

determine a set of semiotic relationships from the plurality of sentences;

determine a reduced set of semiotic relationships from the set of semiotic relationships in response to the set of semiotic relationships and in response to an ideas index to determine a reduced set of semiotic relationships from the set of semiotic relationships;

compare the reduced set of semiotic relationships to each of a plurality of semiotic relationships associated with a set of documents to determine comparison values;

determine a reduced set of documents from the set of documents in response to the comparison values; and

cause portions of the reduced set of documents to be output.

9. The computer system of claim 8 wherein the processor is further configured to:

determine an ordering for the reduced set of documents in response to the comparison values; and

cause portions of the reduced set of documents to be output in response to the ordering.

10. The computer system of claim 8 wherein the processor is configured to determine a plurality of signs from the plurality of sentences, and to determine grammatical relationships for signs in each of the plurality of sentences.

11. The computer system of claim 10:

wherein the set of semiotic relationships comprises a set of concepts; and

wherein the set of concepts comprises signs and respective grammatical relationships for each of the plurality of sentences.

12. The computer system of claim 11:

wherein the processor is configured to determine a subset of concepts from the set of concepts in response to the ideas index; and

wherein the ideas index comprises an ideas ontology or taxonomy.

13. The computer system of claim 8 wherein a representation of the reduced set of semiotic relationships comprises a thematic bitmask.

14. The computer system of claim 13 wherein the representation of the reduced set of semiotic relationships also comprises a data structure identifying association between bits within the thematic bitmask and semiotic relationships from the reduced set of semiotic relationships.

15. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing code executable by a processor, the code comprising:

code that directs the processor to receive an input source comprising a plurality of sentences;

code that directs the processor to determine a set of semiotic relationships from the plurality of sentences;

code that directs the processor to perform a contextual correlation in response to the set of semiotic relationships and in response to an ideas index to determine a reduced set of semiotic relationships from the set of semiotic relationships;

code that directs the processor to compare the reduced set of semiotic relationships to each of a plurality of semiotic relationships associated with a set of documents to determine comparison values;

code that directs the processor to determine a reduced set of documents from the set of documents in response to the comparison values; and

code that directs the processor to output portions of the reduced set of documents to a user.

16. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15 further comprising:

code that directs the computer system to determine an ordering for the reduced set of documents in response to the comparison values; and

wherein the output portion is configured to output portions of the reduced set of documents to the user in response to the ordering.

17. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15 further comprising:

code that directs a processor to determine a plurality of signs from the plurality of sentences;

code that directs the processor to determine grammatical relationships for signs in each of the plurality of sentences;

wherein the set of semiotic relationships comprises a set of concepts; and

wherein the set of concepts comprises signs and respective grammatical relationships for each of the plurality of sentences.

18. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 17:

further comprising code that directs a computer system to determine a subset of concepts from the set of concepts in response to the ideas index;

wherein the ideas index is configured to store ideas ontology or taxonomy.

19. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15 wherein a representation of the reduced set of semiotic relationships comprises a thematic bitmask.

20. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 19 wherein the representation of the reduced set of semiotic relationships also comprises a data structure identifying association between bits within the thematic bitmask and semiotic relationships from the reduced set of semiotic relationships.