Systems and methods for data indexing and processing

• US 8,370,387 B2
• Filed: 12/22/2011
• Issued: 02/05/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 07/15/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Indxit Systems Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Indxit Systems Incorporated
• Inventors: Ebaugh, Michael John, Morvant, Matthew Joseph
• Primary Examiner(s): Ortiz Ditren, Belix M
• Application Number:
  US13/335,597
• Publication Number:
  US 20120096036A1
• Time in Patent Office: 411 Days
• Field of Search: 707/780
• US Class Current: 707/780
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2228 Indexing structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/31 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/313 Selection or weighting of terms for indexing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3331 Query processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/414 Extracting the geometrical structure, e.g. layout tree; Block segmentation, e.g. bounding boxes for graphics or text
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/418 Document matching, e.g. of document images
• CPC Class Codes: Y02A 90/10 Information and communication technologies [ICT] supporting adaptation to climate change, e.g. for weather forecasting or climate simulation

Abstract

Systems and methods are disclosed that allow for indexing, processing, or both of information from physical media or electronic media, which may be received from a plurality of sources. In embodiments, a document file may be matched using pattern matching methods and may include comparisons with a comparison reference database to improve or accelerate the indexing process. In embodiments, information may be presented to a user as potential matches thereby improving manual indexing processes. In embodiments, one or more additional actions may occur as part of the processing, including without limitation, association additional data with a document file, making observations from the document file, notifying individuals, creating composite messages, and billing events. In an embodiment, data from a document file may be associated with a key word, key phrase, or word frequency value that enables adaptive learning so that unindexed data may be automatically indexed based on user interaction history.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer-readable medium or media comprising one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes steps to be performed comprising:

obtaining a first set of criteria for identifying a document characteristic in a document file comprising unstructured data, wherein each criterion in the first set of criteria comprises one or more conditions and is associated with a document characteristic, the first set of criteria being from a first source;

obtaining a second set of criteria for identifying a document characteristic in a document file comprising unstructured data, wherein each criterion in the second set of criteria comprises one or more conditions and is associated with a document characteristic, the second set of criteria being from a second source; and

comparing the first and second sets of criteria to generate a set of match criteria for use in identifying one or more document characteristics for a document file comprising unstructured data, wherein each criterion in the set of match criteria comprises one or more conditions and is associated with a document characteristic.

2. The non-transitory computer-readable medium or media comprising one or more sequences of instructions of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving a document file comprising unstructured data;

comparing at least some criteria from the set of match criteria with the document file; and

responsive to a criterion from the set of match criteria exceeding a threshold level match with data in the document file, associating the document file with the document characteristic associated with the criterion.

3. The non-transitory computer-readable medium or media comprising one or more sequences of instructions of claim 1 wherein the first and the second sources represent a first client and a second client of document processing services.

4. The non-transitory computer-readable medium or media comprising one or more sequences of instructions of claim 3 wherein at least some document files processed for the first and second clients comprise similar content.

5. The non-transitory computer-readable medium or media comprising one or more sequences of instructions of claim 3 further comprising:

distributing the set of match criteria to one or more clients of the document processing services.

6. The non-transitory computer-readable medium or media comprising one or more sequences of instructions of claim 1 wherein the document characteristic represents a document type.

7. The non-transitory computer-readable medium or media comprising one or more sequences of instructions of claim 1 wherein at least one of the first and second sets of criteria was obtained from prior identifying operations in which a criterion successfully matched a document file with the document characteristic associated with the criterion.

8. The non-transitory computer-readable medium or media comprising one or more sequences of instructions of claim 7 wherein at least some of the prior identifying operations comprise the first or second source manually identifying at least some of the criteria for identifying a document characteristic.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable medium or media comprising one or more sequences of instructions of claim 1 wherein the step of comparing the first and second sets of criteria to generate a set of match criteria for use in identifying one or more document characteristics for a document file comprising unstructured data comprises, for a criterion associated with the same document characteristic from the first and second sets of criteria:

comparing the one or more conditions of the criterion from the first set of criteria with the one or more conditions in the criterion from the second set of criteria; and

selecting the one or more conditions in common between the criterion from the first set of criteria and the criterion from the second set of criteria as a criterion associated with the document characteristic for the set of match criteria.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable medium or media comprising one or more sequences of instructions of claim 1 wherein the step of comparing the first and second sets of criteria to generate a set of match criteria for use in identifying a document characteristic for a document file comprising unstructured data comprises:

entering into the set of match criteria the criterion from the first and second sets of criteria that have unique conditions.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable medium or media comprising one or more sequences of instructions of claim 10 further comprising:

removing conditions from the first set of criteria that are specific to the first source; and

removing conditions from the second set of criteria that are specific to the second source.

12. A processor-implemented method for identifying a document characteristic comprising:

receiving, from a plurality of sources, a plurality of features for use in identifying one or more document characteristics of document files comprising unstructured data, wherein each feature comprises one or more elements and each feature is associated with a document characteristic;

generating, from the plurality of features, a set of features and their associated document characteristics for use in identifying one or more characteristics of a document file comprising unstructured data;

receiving a document file comprising unstructured data;

comparing at least some of the features from the set of features with the document file comprising unstructured data; and

responsive to a feature exceeding a threshold match with data in the document file, attributing the document characteristic associated with the matching feature to the document file.

13. The processor-implemented method of claim 12 wherein the feature comprises one or more of a key word, key phrases, frequency of a key word, frequency of key phrases, one or more strings, an array of strings, associations, and relational operators.

14. The processor-implemented method of claim 12 further comprising:

responsive to no feature from the set of features having a threshold match with data in the document file, providing at least a portion of the document file to a user to facilitate the user'"'"'s identifying of a feature comprising one or more elements for identifying a document characteristic of the document file.

15. The processor-implemented method of claim 14 further comprising:

adding the user'"'"'s identified feature to the set of features for use in future document processing.

16. The processor-implemented method of claim 12 wherein the step of generating, from the plurality of features, a set of features and their associated document characteristics for use identifying one or more characteristics of a document file comprising unstructured data comprises:

removing elements from the features that are specific to a source from the plurality of sources.

17. A system for detecting an object in an image, the system comprising:

one or more processors; and

a non-transitory computer-readable medium or media comprising one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, causes steps to be performed comprising;

receiving, from a plurality of sources, a plurality of features for use in identifying one or more document characteristics of document files comprising unstructured data, wherein each feature comprises one or more elements and each feature is associated with a document characteristic;

generating, from the plurality of features, a set of features and their associated document characteristics for use in identifying one or more characteristics of a document file comprising unstructured data;

receiving a document file comprising unstructured data;

comparing at least some of the features from the set of features with the document file comprising unstructured data; and

responsive to a feature exceeding a threshold match with data in the document file, attributing the document characteristic associated with the matching feature to the document file.

18. The system of claim 17 wherein the feature comprises one or more of a key word, key phrases, frequency of a key word, frequency of key phrases, one or more strings, an array of strings, associations, and relational operators.

19. The system of claim 17 wherein the non-transitory computer-readable medium or media comprising one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, further causes steps to be performed comprising:

responsive to no feature from the set of features having a threshold match with data in the document file, providing at least a portion of the document file to a user to facilitate the user'"'"'s identifying of a feature comprising one or more elements for identifying a document characteristic of the document file.

20. The system of claim 19 wherein the non-transitory computer-readable medium or media comprising one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, further causes steps to be performed comprising at least one of:

adding the user'"'"'s identified feature to the set of features for use in future document processing; and

removing elements from the features that are specific to a source from the plurality of sources.