Concept-based method and system for dynamically analyzing results from search engines

• US 8,589,413 B1
• Filed: 10/29/2003
• Issued: 11/19/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/01/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CONQ Incorporated
• Original Assignee: IxReveal Incorporated
• Inventors: Mohan, Rengaswamy, Mohan, Usha, Sha, David
• Primary Examiner(s): Mofiz, Apu
• Assistant Examiner(s): DAYE, CHELCIE L
• Application Number:
  US10/695,426
• Time in Patent Office: 3,674 Days
• Field of Search: 707 1- 3, 707/102, 707/103, 707/749, 707/794, 706/46
• US Class Current: 707/749
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/313 Selection or weighting of terms for indexing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/956 Hierarchical
• 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 707/99944 Object-oriented database structure
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

A method, system and computer program for identifying a relationship between concepts in an object includes (i) selecting the object for inclusion in an initial subset of objects obtained as an output of a search engine; (ii) storing the object in a database; (iii) creating an index of the object; (iv) analyzing the index to extract two concepts relating to the object; (v) highlighting the two concepts within object; (vi) calculating a strength of a relationship between the two concepts using a ratio; (vii) storing the two concepts and the strength of the relationships between the two concepts in a database; (viii) presenting the two concepts and the strength in an interface that has a concept matrix; and (ix) repeating steps vi through viii for every possible pairwise combination of concepts within the index. The relationship can be the two concepts both occur in the same object; the two concepts occur near each other within the same object; and the two concepts occur near each other and in a particular order within the same object. The ratio can be a support ratio; an occurrence ratio; and a combined ratio. An additional concept can be added to the index; all the concepts can be grouped in the index by concept type; and complex meta-structures can be created. The concept type can be a part of speech; a geographic region; a person; a group of persons; a business unit; an organization; an action; a process; a product; a service; a subject; and a category.

Claims

1. A computer-readable storage medium comprising code representing instructions to cause a processor to:

receive, from a user, a first selection indicating a predefined corpus of a plurality of objects, the plurality of objects being of a finite number;

extract, from the plurality of objects, a plurality of all concepts that occur in the corpus, each concept from the plurality of all concepts being one or more of;

a part of speech;

a geographic region;

a person;

a group of persons;

a business unit;

an organization;

an action;

a process;

a product;

a service;

a subject;

or

a category;

receive, from the user, a second selection indicating a first concept and a second concept from the plurality of all concepts, wherein the first concept includes a seed concept and at least one related concept, and wherein the second concept includes a seed concept and at least one related concept;

calculate a strength of a relationship between the first user-selected concept and the second user-selected concept, the relationship being based at least in part on a presence of both the first user-selected concept and the second user-selected concept in each of at least a first object and a second object in the corpus, the calculating including receiving, from a user, a proximity value for the first user-selected concept and the second user-selected concept, the proximity value being based at least in part on a number of words occurring between the first user-selected concept and the second user-selected concept within each object from the plurality of objects; and

identify a third concept when the strength of the relationship exceeds a predetermined threshold, the third concept being the relationship between the first concept and the second concept, the predetermined threshold being based at least in part on a predetermined proximity threshold value, the predetermined proximity threshold value being based at least in part on a number of words between two concepts within an object.

2. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the strength of the relationship is based at least in part on a ratio, the ratio being calculated using at least one of:

a first ratio of a number of unstructured objects in the corpus in which both the first concept and the second concept occurs to a total number of objects in the corpus;

a second ratio of a number of unstructured objects in the corpus in which both the first concept and the second concept occur to a number of objects in which any of the first concept and the second concept occurs;

or

a third ratio, the third ratio being based at least in part on a mathematical product of the first ratio and the second ratio.

3. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, further comprising code representing instructions to cause a processor to:

associate each concept from the plurality of concepts with a concept type from a plurality of concept types;

group each concept from the plurality of concepts by a concept type from the plurality of concept types associated with that concept; and

define a meta-structure based upon a first concept type from the plurality of concept types.

4. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1 wherein the relationship is a first relationship, further comprising code representing instructions to cause a processor to:

if the strength of the first relationship exceeds the predetermined threshold, calculate a strength of a second relationship between another pair of concepts from the plurality of concepts.

5. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, further comprising code representing instructions to cause a processor to store the plurality of objects to a database.

6. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, further comprising code representing instructions to cause a processor to:

store the strength of the relationship to a database.

7. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, further comprising code representing instructions to cause a processor to:

notify the user if the strength of the relationship is within a predefined numerical range.

8. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, further comprising code representing instructions to cause a processor to:

display the third concept to a user.

9. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the code to display includes code to display to the user the third concept, the relationship, and the strength of the relationship as a concept matrix.

10. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the code to display includes code to display to the user the third concept, the relationship, and the strength of the relationship as a list.

11. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the code to display includes code to highlight the first concept and the second concept in the first object.

12. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, further comprising code representing instructions to cause a processor to:

define an index that includes a location of the first concept and the second concept within at least one object from the plurality of objects.

13. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, further comprising code representing instructions to cause a processor to:

define an index that includes metadata relating to the plurality of objects.

14. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein each object from the plurality of objects is any of:

an email, a file, a webpage, a spreadsheet and an image.

15. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the first object and the second object is each selected from a set of search engine results.

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, further comprising code representing instructions to cause a processor to:

define a plurality of concept pairs, each concept pair from the plurality of concept pairs including two concepts from the plurality of concepts; and

calculate, for each concept pair from the plurality of concept pairs, a strength of a relationship based at least in part on a presence of that concept pair in the plurality of objects.

17. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the strength of the relationship is a first strength of the relationship, further comprising code representing instructions to cause a processor to:

define a concept pair, the concept pair including a fourth concept from the plurality of concepts and the third concept;

calculate a second strength of a relationship for the concept pair, the second strength of the relationship for the concept pair being based at least in part on a presence of the third concept and the fourth concept in the plurality of objects; and

determine if the second strength of the relationship for the concept pair exceeds the predetermined threshold.

18. A computer-readable storage medium comprising code representing instructions to cause a processor to:

receive a first user selection, the first user selection indicating a subset of a plurality of objects, the subset comprising a predefined corpus, the predefined corpus having a plurality of concepts, each concept from the plurality of concepts being one or more of;

a part of speech;

a geographic region;

a person;

a group of persons;

a business unit;

an organization;

an action;

a process;

a product;

a service;

a subject;

or

a category;

extract a plurality of concepts that occur in the corpus;

receive a second user selection, the second user selection indicating a first user-selected concept and a second user-selected concept from the plurality of concepts, wherein the first user-selected concept includes a seed concept and at least one related concept, and wherein the second user-selected conceit includes a seed conceit and at least one related conceit;

calculate a strength of a relationship between the first user-selected concept and the second user-selected concept, the relationship being based at least in part on;

a presence of both the first user-selected concept and the second user-selected concept in each of at least a first object and a second object in the corpus;

a proximity of the first user-selected concept to the second user-selected concept within at least the first object in the corpus, the proximity based on a user-selected proximity value; and

a number of occurrences of the first user-selected concept and the second user-selected concept within the first object in the corpus; and

identify a third concept when the strength of the relationship exceeds a predetermined threshold, the third concept being the relationship, the predetermined threshold being based at least in part on a predetermined proximity threshold value, the predetermined proximity threshold value specifying a number of words between two concepts within an object.

19. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, further comprising code representing instructions to cause a processor to:

define a concept pair, the concept pair including a fourth concept from the plurality of all concepts and the third concept;

calculate a second strength of a relationship between the third concept and the fourth concept, the second strength of the relationship between the third concept and the fourth concept being based at least in part on a presence of the third concept and the fourth concept in the corpus; and

identify a fifth concept when the second strength of the relationship between the third concept and the fourth concept exceeds the predetermined threshold, the fifth concept being the second relationship between the third concept and the fourth concept.

20. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the strength of the relationship is calculated based at least in part on:

a frequency of presence of the first concept and the second concept within the corpus; and

a total number of objects from the corpus in which the first concept and the second concept are present.

21. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the strength of the relationship is based at least in part on a ratio, the ratio being calculated using at least one of:

a first ratio of a number of unstructured objects in the corpus in which the relationship occurs to a total number of objects in the corpus;

a second ratio of a number of occurrences of the relationship in the corpus to a number of objects in which any of the first concept and the second concept occurs;

or

a third ratio, the third ratio being based at least in part on a mathematical product of the first ratio and the second ratio.