Document analysis and retrieval

• US 8,015,206 B2
• Filed: 07/11/2008
• Issued: 09/06/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/30/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Gosby, Desiree D. G., Ito, Keith I
• Primary Examiner(s): AL HASHEMI, SANA A
• Application Number:
  US12/171,395
• Publication Number:
  US 20080270434A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,152 Days
• Field of Search: 707/791, 707/794, 707/803, 707/807, 707/809
• US Class Current: 707/791
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3347 using vector based model
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/353 into predefined classes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/38 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99942 Manipulating data structure, e.g. compression, compaction, compilation
• 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 computer program product including stored program code adapted to implement a method for document analysis and retrieval. A document that includes text is received from a host. Document keys associated with the text are generated. In first embodiments, a document taxonomy is provided. The taxonomy has categories and associated category keys. The category keys of each category are compared with the document keys to determine a distance between the document and each category as a measure of how close the document is to each category. A subset of the categories is returned to the host, wherein the subset of the categories reflects the determined distances. In second embodiments, a search string is created as a logical function of a subset of the document keys. The search string is submitted to a search engine. Links to related documents are received from the search engine and returned to the host.

Claims

1. A computer program product, comprising a computer readable storage device having a computer readable program code embodied therein, said program code configured to be executed by a processor of a computer system to implement a method for document analysis and retrieval, said method comprising the steps of:

receiving a document having text therein from a host of a first computing system;

generating document keys associated with said text from analysis of said text, each said document key selected from the group consisting of a keyword of said text and a keyphrase of said text;

providing a document taxonomy having categories, each category having category keys, each said category key selected from the group consisting of a keyword of said category and a keyphrase of said category;

comparing the category keys of each category with said document keys to make a determination of a distance between the document and each category as a measure of how close the document is to each category, wherein said comparing comprises computing said distance for each category as a dot product of a vector of said document keys and a vector of said category keys for each category; and

returning a subset of said categories to said host, wherein said subset of said categories reflects said determination.

2. A computer program product, comprising a computer readable storage device having a computer readable program code embodied therein, said program code configured to be executed by a processor of a computer system to implement a method for document analysis and retrieval, said method comprising the steps of:

receiving a document having text therein from a host of a first computing system;

generating document keys associated with said text from analysis of said text, each said document key selected from the group consisting of a keyword of said text and a keyphrase of said text;

providing a document taxonomy having categories, each category having category keys, each said category key selected from the group consisting of a keyword of said category and a keyphrase of said category;

comparing the category keys of each category with said document keys to make a determination of a distance between the document and each category as a measure of how close the document is to each category;

returning a subset of said categories to said host, wherein said subset of said categories reflects said determination,

said method further comprising;

generating document weights, wherein each document weight is associated with a corresponding document key of said document keys, and wherein each document weight is a measure of the importance of its corresponding document key in comparison with the other document keys of the document; and

providing category weights for each category, wherein each category weight is associated with a corresponding category key of said category keys, wherein each category weight is a measure of the importance of its corresponding category key in comparison with the other category keys of the category, and wherein said comparing comprises computing said distance for each category as a dot product of a vector of said document weights and a vector of said category weights for each category.

3. The computer program product of claim 2, wherein the document weights are a linear function of the number of appearances of the corresponding document keys in the document.

4. The computer program product of claim 2, wherein the document weights are a nonlinear function of the number of appearances of the corresponding document keys in the document.