Analyzing concepts over time

• US 9,798,818 B2
• Filed: 09/22/2015
• Issued: 10/24/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/22/2015
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Ho, Tin Kam, Lastras-Montano, Luis A., Shmueli, Oded
• Primary Examiner(s): He, Jialong
• Application Number:
  US14/861,399
• Publication Number:
  US 20170083507A1
• Time in Patent Office: 763 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2237 Vectors, bitmaps or matrices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/243 Natural language query formulation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3344 using natural language analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3347 using vector based model
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 3/08 Learning methods
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0203 Market surveys; Market polls
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 999/99 dummy group

Abstract

A method and apparatus are provided for automatically generating and processing first and second concept vector sets extracted, respectively, from a first set of concept sequences and from a second, temporally separated, concept sequences by performing a natural language processing (NLP) analysis of the first concept vector set and second concept vector set to detect changes in the corpus over time by identifying changes for one or more concepts included in the first and/or second set of concept sequences.

Claims

1. A method, in an information handling system comprising a processor and a memory, for analyzing concept vectors over time to detect changes in a corpus, the method comprising:

generating, by the system, at least a first concept vector set V1, . . . , Vk derived from a first set of concept sequences over k concepts that are extracted from the corpus and applied to a vector learning component;

generating, by the system, at least a second concept vector set V′

1, . . . , V′

k+b derived from a concatenation of the first set of concept sequences and a second set of concept sequences over k old and b new concepts that are extracted from the corpus and applied to the vector learning component, where the second set of concept sequences is effectively collected after collection of the first set of concept sequences; and

performing, by the system, a natural language processing (NLP) analysis of the first concept vector set and second concept vector set to detect changes in the corpus over time by analyzing relationship strengths between concepts that persist in the first set of concept sequences and the second set of concept sequences to identify market trends for answering questions submitted to the information handling system by identifying vector changes for one or more concepts included in the first and/or second set of concept sequences, wherein analyzing relationship strengths comprises;

computing, by the system, a first cosine distance between each vector pair Vi, Vj from the first concept vector set V1, . . . , Vk for all i≠

j, 1≦

i, j≦

k;

computing, by the system, a second cosine distance between each vector pair V′

i, V′

j from the second concept vector set V′

1, . . . , V′

k+b for all i≠

j, 1≦

i, j≦

k; and

identifying concept pairs from the first set of concept sequences whose interrelationship has changed by reporting each concept pair Vi, Vj whereby a subtraction of the second cosine distance from the first cosine distance exceeds a first specified reporting threshold.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein performing the NLP analysis comprises detecting an appearance of one or more new concepts in the second set of concept sequences that are not present in the first set of concept sequences.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein performing the NLP analysis comprises detecting a disappearance of one or more old concepts from the first set of concept sequences that are not present in the second set of concept sequences.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein performing the NLP analysis comprises detecting an appearance of one or more disruptive concepts in the second set of concept sequences that are related to a specified technology area represented by a sum of a plurality of concept vectors.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein performing the NLP analysis comprises detecting an appearance of one or more emerging concepts in the second set of concept sequences that are related to a specified topic area.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein performing the NLP analysis comprises detecting differences in spatial and/or frequency distributions of first and second concept vector sets by identifying changes in values of quantitative geometry and topology features that characterize concept regions associated, respectively, with the first and second concept vector sets.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein identifying changes comprises computing differences in centroid positions, diameters between extreme points, orientations of the principal axes, number of significant dimensions, aspect ratios between lengths of the principal axes, or number and sizes of clusters computed by standard clustering algorithms.

8. An information handling system comprising:

one or more processors;

a memory coupled to at least one of the processors;

a set of instructions stored in the memory and executed by at least one of the processors to analyze concept vectors over time to detect changes in a corpus, wherein the set of instructions are executable to perform actions of;

generating, by the system, at least a first concept vector set V1, . . . , Vk derived from a first set of concept sequences over k concepts that are extracted from the corpus and applied to a vector learning component;

generating, by the system, at least a second concept vector set V′

1, . . . , V′

k+b derived from a concatenation of the first set of concept sequences and a second set of concept sequences over k old and b new concepts that are extracted from the corpus and applied to the vector learning component, where the second set of concept sequences is effectively collected after collection of the first set of concept sequences; and

performing, by the system, a natural language processing (NLP) analysis of the first concept vector set and second concept vector set to detect changes in the corpus over time by analyzing relationship strengths between concepts that persist in the first set of concept sequences and the second set of concept sequences to identify market trends for answering questions submitted to the information handling system by identifying vector changes for one or more concepts included in the first and/or second set of concept sequences, wherein analyzing relationship strengths comprises;

computing, by the system, a first cosine distance between each vector pair Vi, Vj from the first concept vector set V1, . . . , Vk for all i≠

j, 1≦

i, j≦

k;

computing, by the system, a second cosine distance between each vector pair V′

i, V′

j from the second concept vector set V′

1, . . . , V′

k+b for all i≠

j, 1≦

i, j≦

k; and

identifying concept pairs from the first set of concept sequences whose interrelationship has changed by reporting each concept pair Vi, Vj whereby a subtraction of the second cosine distance from the first cosine distance exceeds a first specified reporting threshold.

9. The information handling system of claim 8, wherein the set of instructions are executable to perform the NLP analysis by detecting an appearance of one or more new concepts in the second set of concept sequences that are not present in the first set of concept sequences.

10. The information handling system of claim 8, wherein the set of instructions are executable to perform the NLP analysis by detecting a disappearance of one or more old concepts from the first set of concept sequences that are not present in the second set of concept sequences.

11. The information handling system of claim 8, wherein the set of instructions are executable to perform the NLP analysis by detecting an appearance of one or more disruptive concepts in the second set of concept sequences that are related to a specified technology area represented by a sum of a plurality of concept vectors.

12. The information handling system of claim 8, wherein the set of instructions are executable to perform the NLP analysis by detecting an appearance of one or more emerging concepts in the second set of concept sequences that are related to a specified topic area.

13. The information handling system of claim 8, wherein the set of instructions are executable to perform the NLP analysis by detecting differences in spatial and/or frequency distributions of first and second concept vector sets by identifying changes in values of quantitative geometry and topology features that characterize concept regions associated, respectively, with the first and second concept vector sets.

14. A computer program product stored in a non-transitory computer readable storage medium, comprising computer instructions that, when executed by an information handling system, causes the system to analyze concept vectors over time to detect changes in a corpus by performing actions comprising:

generating, by the system, at least a first concept vector set V1, . . . , Vk derived from a first set of concept sequences over k concepts that are extracted from the corpus and applied to a vector learning component;

generating, by the system, at least a second concept vector set V′

1, . . . , V′

k+b derived from a concatenation of the first set of concept sequences and a second set of concept sequences over k old and b new concepts that are extracted from the corpus and applied to the vector learning component, where the second set of concept sequences is effectively collected after collection of the first set of concept sequences; and

performing, by the system, a natural language processing (NLP) analysis of the first concept vector set and second concept vector set to detect changes in the corpus over time by analyzing relationship strengths between concepts that persist in the first set of concept sequences and the second set of concept sequences to identify market trends for answering questions submitted to the information handling system by identifying vector changes for one or more concepts included in the first and/or second set of concept sequences, wherein analyzing relationship strengths comprises;

computing, by the system, a first cosine distance between each vector pair Vi, Vj from the first concept vector set V1, . . . , Vk for all i≠

j, 1≦

i, j≦

k;

computing, by the system, a second cosine distance between each vector pair V′

i, V′

j from the second concept vector set V′

1, . . . , V′

k+b for all i≠

j, 1≦

i, j≦

k; and

identifying concept pairs from the first set of concept sequences whose interrelationship has changed by reporting each concept pair Vi, Vj whereby a subtraction of the second cosine distance from the first cosine distance exceeds a first specified reporting threshold.

15. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein performing the NLP analysis comprises detecting a disappearance of one or more old concepts from the first set of concept sequences that are not present in the second set of concept sequences.

16. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein performing the NLP analysis comprises detecting an appearance of one or more disruptive concepts in the second set of concept sequences that are related to a specified technology area represented by a sum of a plurality of concept vectors.

17. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein performing the NLP analysis comprises detecting an appearance of one or more emerging concepts in the second set of concept sequences that are related to a specified topic area.

18. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein performing the NLP analysis comprises detecting differences in spatial and/or frequency distributions of first and second concept vector sets by identifying changes in values of quantitative geometry and topology features that characterize concept regions associated, respectively, with the first and second concept vector sets.

19. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein identifying changes comprises computing differences in centroid positions, diameters between extreme points, orientations of the principal axes, number of significant dimensions, aspect ratios between lengths of the principal axes, or number and sizes of clusters computed by standard clustering algorithms.