Data visualization methods, data visualization devices, data visualization apparatuses, and articles of manufacture

• US 9,069,847 B2
• Filed: 10/21/2005
• Issued: 06/30/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/21/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Battelle Memorial Institute
• Original Assignee: Battelle Memorial Institute
• Inventors: Turner, Alan E., Crow, Vernon L., Payne, Deborah A., Hetzler, Elizabeth G., Cook, Kristin A., Cowley, Wendy E.
• Primary Examiner(s): TAPP, AMELIA L
• Application Number:
  US11/256,225
• Publication Number:
  US 20070094592A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,539 Days
• Field of Search: 715/205, 715/273
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/285 Clustering or classification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/358 Browsing; Visualisation therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/93 Document management systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/106 Display of layout of documents; Previewing

Abstract

Data visualization methods, data visualization devices, data visualization apparatuses, and articles of manufacture are described according to some aspects. In one aspect, a data visualization method includes accessing a plurality of initial documents at a first moment in time, first processing the initial documents providing processed initial documents, first identifying a plurality of first associations of the initial documents using the processed initial documents, generating a first visualization depicting the first associations, accessing a plurality of additional documents at a second moment in time after the first moment in time, second processing the additional documents providing processed additional documents, second identifying a plurality of second associations of the additional documents and at least some of the initial documents, wherein the second identifying comprises identifying using the processed initial documents and the processed additional documents, and generating a second visualization depicting the second associations.

Claims

1. A computer implemented document processing method comprising:

accessing a plurality of initial documents;

initially processing the initial documents to provide a plurality of initial representations for respective ones of the initial documents, wherein the initial representations include a plurality of associations of the initial documents with a plurality of features which occur in respective ones of the initial documents;

using the initial representations, initially identifying a plurality of associations of the initial documents with respect to one another;

after the initially identifying, accessing a plurality of subsequent documents;

subsequently processing the subsequent documents to provide a plurality of subsequent representations for respective ones of the subsequent documents, wherein the subsequent representations include a plurality of associations of the subsequent documents with a plurality of features which occur in respective ones of the subsequent documents; and

using the initial and subsequent representations, subsequently identifying a plurality of associations of the initial documents with respect to the subsequent documents.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the initial representations indicate the features which are present in a specific one of the initial documents.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the initial representations further indicate which ones of the initial documents include a specific one of the features.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the initial documents are not processed again to identify the associations of the initial documents with the features which occur in the respective ones of the initial documents after the initially processing.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the initially processing comprises generating a list of the features present in the initial documents, and wherein the subsequently processing includes adding new features to the list which occur in the subsequent documents but do not occur in the initial documents.

6. The method of claim 5 further comprising, after the initially identifying, determining a period of time which has passed since one of the initial documents was accessed, and further comprising removing one of the features which is present in the one of the initial documents from the list of the features as a result of the period of time exceeding a threshold.

7. The method of claim 5 wherein the list of the features indicates numbers of occurrences of respective ones of the features in the initial documents, and further comprising, after the initially identifying, determining a period of time which has passed since one of the initial documents was accessed, and further comprising decrementing one of the numbers of occurrences for one of the features which occurs in the one of the initial documents as a result of the period of time exceeding a threshold.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the initially processing generates a forward index comprising the initial representations, and the subsequently processing comprises adding the subsequent representations to the forward index.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising, after the initially identifying, identifying one of the initial documents as being aged, and wherein the subsequently processing comprises removing one of the initial representations for the one of the initial documents from the forward index.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein the initially processing generates a reverse index which includes one list of the features and the initial documents which include respective ones of the features.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the subsequently processing generates another reverse index which includes another list of the features and the initial and subsequent documents which include respective ones of the features.

12. The method of claim 8 wherein the forward index indicates which features are present in respective ones of the initial documents and the subsequent documents.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the initially identifying comprises identifying a plurality of clusters of the initial documents and the subsequently identifying comprises identifying a plurality of clusters of the initial documents and the subsequent documents.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the initially and subsequently processings individually comprise identifying the features present in respective ones of the initial documents and the subsequent documents.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the initial documents are not processed again to identify the features present in the initial documents after the initially processing.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein the initial representations include the associations of the initial documents with the features which are words which occur in respective ones of the initial documents, and the subsequent representations include the associations of the subsequent documents with the features which are words which occur in respective ones of the subsequent documents.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the initial representations include, for an individual one of the initial documents, a list of the words which are present in the individual one of the initial documents.

18. The method of claim 1 wherein the accessing the initial documents comprises accessing the initial documents from a dynamically changing corpus at an initial moment in time, and the subsequent documents are not present in the dynamically changing corpus at the initial moment in time.

19. An article of manufacture comprising:

storage media storing programming configured to cause processing circuitry to perform processing comprising;

accessing a plurality of initial documents;

initially processing the initial documents to provide a plurality of initial representations for respective ones of the initial documents, wherein the initial representations include a plurality of associations of the initial documents with a plurality of features which occur in respective ones of the initial documents;

using the initial representations, initially identifying a plurality of associations of the initial documents with respect to one another;

after the initially identifying, accessing a plurality of subsequent documents;

subsequently processing the subsequent documents to provide a plurality of subsequent representations for respective ones of the subsequent documents, wherein the subsequent representations include a plurality of associations of the subsequent documents with a plurality of features which occur in respective ones of the subsequent documents; and

using the initial and subsequent representations, subsequently identifying a plurality of associations of the initial documents with respect to the subsequent documents.

20. The article of claim 19 wherein the initial representations indicate the features which are present in respective ones of the initial documents.

21. The article of claim 19 wherein the initial documents are not processed again after the initially processing.

22. The article of claim 19 wherein the initially processing comprises generating a list of the features present in the initial documents, and wherein the subsequently processing includes adding new features to the list which occur in the subsequent documents but do not occur in the initial documents.

23. The article of claim 22 further comprising, after the initially identifying, identifying one of the initial documents as being aged, and further comprising removing one of the features which is present in the one of the initial documents from the list of the features as a result of the identifying the one of the initial documents as being aged.

24. The article of claim 22 wherein the list of the features indicates numbers of occurrences of respective ones of the features in the initial documents, and further comprising, after the initially identifying, identifying one of the initial documents as being aged, and further comprising decrementing one of the numbers of occurrences for one of the features which occurs in the one of the initial documents as a result of the identifying the one of the initial documents as being aged.

25. The article of claim 19 wherein the initially processing generates a forward index comprising the initial representations, and the subsequently processing comprises adding the subsequent representations to the forward index.

26. The article of claim 25 further comprising, after the initially identifying, identifying one of the initial documents as being aged, and wherein the subsequently processing comprises removing one of the initial representations for the one of the initial documents from the forward index.

27. The article of claim 25 wherein the initially processing generates a reverse index which includes one list of the features and the initial documents which include respective ones of the features.

28. The article of claim 27 wherein the subsequently processing generates another reverse index which includes another list of the features and the initial and subsequent documents which include respective ones of the features.

29. The article of claim 19 wherein the initially identifying comprises identifying a plurality of clusters of the initial documents and the subsequently identifying comprises identifying a plurality of clusters of the initial documents and the subsequent documents.

30. The article of claim 19 wherein the initially and subsequently processings individually comprise identifying the features present in respective ones of the initial documents and the subsequent documents.

31. The article of claim 30 wherein the initial documents are not processed again to identify the features present in the initial documents after the initially processing.