Method and apparatus for information surveying

• US 8,170,906 B2
• Filed: 11/14/2003
• Issued: 05/01/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 11/15/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Erick Von Schweber, Linda Von Schweber
• Original Assignee: Erick Von Schweber, Linda Von Schweber
• Inventors: Von Schweber, Erick, Von Schweber, Linda
• Primary Examiner(s): Boswell, Beth V
• Assistant Examiner(s): PORTER, WILLIAM ERNEST
• Application Number:
  US10/533,541
• Publication Number:
  US 20060122876A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,091 Days
• Field of Search: 705/7.32
• US Class Current: 705/7.32
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/35 Clustering; Classification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/358 Browsing; Visualisation therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0203 Market surveys; Market polls
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0204 Market segmentation

Abstract

A method and apparatus are presented with which to conduct information surveys. Contemporary methods of accessing and exploiting information resources, including search techniques and category browsing, have become less effective and efficient at these tasks due to the growing infoglut and the widening knowledge gap between the content, structure, and navigational paths of information resources on the one hand, and what users know and desire of these on the other. The information survey method and apparatus disclosed herein enables a user to survey information in order to rapidly discover the area of the information resource that is most useful to them, the survey niche, and evaluate the knowledge and information found there.

Claims

1. A method implemented by an information resource manager executed in a memory by a processor of a data processing system to conduct an information survey of an information resource that represents at least a single informational entity, the method comprising:

initializing, by a processor a survey niche having a set of at least one predicate, wherein the predicate represents at least one of a property, attribute, trait, characteristic, function, relation, relationship, measurement, constraint, semantic property, action, coding sequence, objective, goal, and criteria of an information survey problem;

transforming, by said processor, the survey niche by applying a first computable function to the initial set of predicates to produce a transformed set of predicates not identical to the initial set and not a proper subset of the initial set such that the transformed set is not satisfiable when evaluated against the information resource, wherein not satisfiable means that no entities of the information resource satisfy all predicates in the transformed set of predicates; and

executing an algorithm, by said processor, to identify a characterized partition of the transformed survey niche where said partition is a survey lattice element wherein the survey lattice represents a partial order of subsets of the transformed set of predicates;

repeat executing an algorithm, by said processor, to generate the survey lattice element that is a satisfiable subset of the transformed set of predicates that results in at least one entity of the information resource that satisfies all predicates in subset, and

identifying at least a portion of the characterized partition of the transformed survey niche the as an option to the information survey problem.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one survey lattice element is at least one of dominant and maximal in the survey lattice, such that adding any additional single predicate from the transformed set into the at least one satisfiable subset would cause the at least one satisfiable subset to become unsatisfiable against the information resource.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein results of the information survey are used to specify modification operations on the information resource surveyed.

4. The method of claim 1, further including enabling selection of at least one entity that satisfies all predicates of the survey lattice element.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first computable function applies an operator that is at least one of a crossover operator and a mutation operator.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the operator is further selected from a group of operators including a random operator, a non-random operator, and a partly random operator.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the first computable function applies one of a semantic operator and a conceptual structure.

8. The method of claim 1, further including associating a survey monitor with the survey niche, wherein the survey monitor represents a non-constraining predicate.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein algorithm includes at least one operation selected from a group of operations including forming maximal satisfiable elements of the survey lattice, forming non-maximal satisfiable elements of the survey lattice, forming minimal unsatisfiable elements of the survey lattice, and forming non-minimal unsatisfiable elements of the survey lattice.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the first computable function applies at least one of a single transformation and a composite transformation.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the first computable function applies at least one of a deterministic transformations, non-deterministic transformations, and a combination of partly deterministic and partly non-deterministic transformations.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the first computable function is at least one of adding, deleting, negating, modifying, binding, and resolving predicates.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one predicate is at least one of single valued, set valued, range valued, and of a complex type.

14. The method of claim 7, wherein the semantic operator is one of a group of semantic transformation operators including generalization/specialization, mereological transformation, relationship transformation, data type transformation, and action transformation.

15. The method of claim 2, further including selecting the first computable function such that the number of survey lattice elements that are at least one of dominant and maximal are bounded by at least one of an upper bound and a lower bound.

16. The method of claim 2, further including selecting the first computable function such that the number of unsatisfiable survey lattice elements that are at least one of minimal and dominated are bounded by at least one of an upper bound and a lower bound.

17. The method of claim 1, further including transforming the set of predicates such that the transformed set of predicates at least partly matches a set of predicates for which survey lattice elements are already formed.

18. The method of claim 1, further including transforming the set of predicates in order to achieve transformation goals from a group including a specific or general contraction, a specific or general expansion, and a specific or general shifting of the survey niche.

19. The method of claim 1, further including selecting the first computable function to achieve differentiation of entities that satisfy subsets of the transformed set of predicates.

20. The method of claim 1, further including performing at least one operation on the survey lattice, in whole or in part, selected from the group of operations including representing the survey lattice, localizing the survey lattice, distributing the survey lattice, replicating the survey lattice, storing the survey lattice, retrieving the survey lattice, forming the survey lattice on-demand, using survey lattices singly or in plurality, indexing the survey lattice, presenting the survey lattice to the user, enabling the user to interact with the survey lattice, and enabling the user to communicate the survey lattice.

21. The method of claim 1, further including:

identifying one or more facts for the satisfiability of each predicate;

grouping the one or more facts by point of evidence to generate one or more groups of facts;

sorting the one or more groups of facts by a number of predicates satisfied;

rejecting duplicate groups of facts from the one or more groups of facts; and

using at least one of group dominance and group containment of the one or more groups of facts as a partial order of the lattice.

22. The method of claim 21 wherein to form a maximal satisfiable element of a survey lattice, the method further includes rejecting groups from the one or more groups of facts those that are at least one of contained and dominated.

23. The method of claim 21 wherein to form minimal unsatisfiable elements of a survey lattice, the method further includes:

identifying one or more negative facts for unsatisfiability of each predicate;

grouping the one or more negative facts by point of evidence to generate one or more groups of negative facts;

sorting, in ascending order, the one or more groups of negative facts by a number of negative facts in a respective group;

rejecting groups of negative facts that contain a same subset of the set of predicates;

rejecting groups of negative facts for which another group is a subset from the one or more groups of negative facts; and

rejecting groups of negative facts that are subsets of maximal satisfiable predicate lattice elements.

24. The method of claim 21, wherein the forming of the survey lattice, in whole or in part, includes performing at least one operation on a fact structure selected from a group of operations including generating, storing, applying, and maintaining fact structures.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the fact structure includes at least one of a fact table and a fact index.

26. The method of claim 21, wherein the forming of the survey lattice, in whole or in part, includes performing at least one operation on a bitmap index selected from a group of operations including generating, storing, applying, and maintaining bitmap indexes.

27. The method of claim 1, further including:

putting predicates which are atoms of a survey lattice into a strict order, using a computing system; and

associating a survey lattice element with a predicate in the strict order using the computing system, where the associated survey lattice element contains the predicate.

28. The method of claim 1, further comprising augmenting an index by associating a survey lattice element with an index entry, wherein the survey lattice element contains the index entry.

29. The method of claim 1, further comprising augmenting a conceptual structure by associating a survey lattice element with a component of a conceptual structure, wherein the survey lattice element contains the component of the conceptual structure.

30. The method of claim 1, further comprising augmenting a category system by associating a survey lattice element with a category of a category system, wherein the survey lattice element contains the category of the category system.

31. The method of claim 1, further comprising augmenting a database system by associating a survey lattice element with an attribute of a database system, wherein the survey lattice element contains the attribute of the database system.

32. A computer-implemented system to conduct an information survey of an information resource, the system including:

a processor;

a memory coupled to the processor; and

an information resource manager executed in the memory by the processor to access the information resource and at least a single entity represented by the information resource,

a survey niche manager executed in the memory by the processor to consume an initial set of at least one predicate, wherein the predicate represents at least one of a property, attribute, trait, characteristic, function, relation, relationship, measurement, constraint, semantic property, action, coding sequence, objective, goal, and criteria of an information survey problem predicates a transformation manager executed in the memory by the processor to apply a first computable function to the initial set of predicates at least one predicate to produce a transformed set of predicates not identical to the initial set and not a proper subset of the initial set such that the transformed set is not satisfiable when evaluated against the information resource, wherein not satisfiable means that no entities of the information resource satisfy all predicates in the transformed set of predicates,

a survey lattice manager executed in the memory by the processor to execute an algorithm to identify a characterized partition of the transformed survey niche where said partition is a survey lattice element wherein the survey lattice represents a partial order of subsets of the transformed set of predicates;

a survey lattice manager executed repeatedly to generate the survey lattice element that is a satisfiable subset of the transformed set of predicates that results in at least one entity of the information resource that satisfies all predicates in subset, and to identify at least a portion of the characterized partition of the transformed survey niche as an option to the information survey problem.

33. The system of claim 32, wherein the system includes at least one manager selected from a group of managers including:

a survey manager to maintain survey configuration information and manage multiple survey generations;

a session manager to manage survey sessions and obtain services from other managers;

a predicate manager to manage terms, concepts, and predicates, and perform disambiguation;

a user manager to manage user information;

a persistence manager to store and retrieve information for other managers;

an integration manager to connect with external systems other than information resources; and

a user interface manager for creating and managing displays and handling user input.

34. The system of claim 32, wherein a survey lattice element augments an information structure where the information structure belongs to a group including an index, a conceptual structure, a database, and a category system.

35. The system of claim 32, further including a user interface subsystem for information surveying, the subsystem including:

;

a means for capturing user input to initialize a set of predicates;

and a displaying means for presenting at least one survey lattice element to the user.

36. The user interface subsystem of claim 35, wherein the interface includes a survey lattice table for presenting at least one survey lattice element.

37. The system of claim 32, further including a data structure, wherein survey lattice elements are based on a source from a group of sources including an index, a conceptual structure, a database, and a category system.