System for ranking the relevance of information objects accessed by computer users
First Claim
1. In a computerized information access system, a method for presenting items of information to users, comprising the steps of:
- a) storing user profiles for users having access to the system, where each user profile is based, at least in part, on the attributes of information the user finds to be of interest;
b) determining an attribute-based relevance factor for an item of information which is indicative of the degree to which an attribute of that item of information matches the profile for a particular user;
c) determining a measure of correlation between the particular user'"'"'s interests and those of other users who have accessed said item of information;
d) combining said relevance factor and said degree of correlation to produce a ranking score for said item of information;
e) repeating steps b, c and d for each item of information to be presented to said particular user; and
f) displaying the items of information to the user in accordance with their ranking scores.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Information presented to a user via an information access system is ranked according to a prediction of the likely degree of relevance to the user'"'"'s interests. A profile of interests is stored for each user having access to the system. Items of information to be presented to a user are ranked according to their likely degree of relevance to that user and displayed in order of ranking. The prediction of relevance is carried out by combining data pertaining to the content of each item of information with other data regarding correlations of interests between users. A value indicative of the content of a document can be added to another value which defines user correlation, to produce a ranking score for a document. Alternatively, multiple regression analysis or evolutionary programming can be carried out with respect to various factors pertaining to document content and user correlation, to generate a prediction of relevance. The user correlation data is obtained from feedback information provided by users when they retrieve items of information. Preferably, the user provides an indication of interest in each document which he or she retrieves from the system.
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Citations
104 Claims
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1. In a computerized information access system, a method for presenting items of information to users, comprising the steps of:
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a) storing user profiles for users having access to the system, where each user profile is based, at least in part, on the attributes of information the user finds to be of interest;
b) determining an attribute-based relevance factor for an item of information which is indicative of the degree to which an attribute of that item of information matches the profile for a particular user;
c) determining a measure of correlation between the particular user'"'"'s interests and those of other users who have accessed said item of information;
d) combining said relevance factor and said degree of correlation to produce a ranking score for said item of information;
e) repeating steps b, c and d for each item of information to be presented to said particular user; and
f) displaying the items of information to the user in accordance with their ranking scores. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 27)
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14. A computer-based information access system, comprising:
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a first database containing items of information to be provided to users of said system;
means for enabling users to indicate their degree of interest in particular items of information stored in said first database;
means for determining the correlation between the indicated interests of respective users and for storing information related thereto; and
means for predicting a given user'"'"'s likely degree of interest in a particular item of information on the basis of said information relating to the determined correlation and at least one attribute of the item of information. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
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28. A method for displaying items of information to users, comprising the steps of:
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determining a relevance factor for an item of information, based upon an attribute of the item of information;
defining a relationship between the interests of a given user and those of other users;
determining a correlation factor for the item of information, based upon said defined relationship;
combining said relevance factor and said correlation factor to produce a ranking score for the item of information; and
displaying the item of information to the given user in accordance with its ranking score. - View Dependent Claims (29, 30, 96)
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31. A method of presenting documents from a document collection to a user, the method comprising:
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storing a user profile vector for the user, the user profile vector in a vector space derived from terms contained in the document collection and including a plurality of weights, each weight associated with a term in the document collection;
selecting a plurality of documents from the document collection, each document associated with a document vector in the term vector space;
for each selected document;
determining a relevance score, the relevance score based on a relationship between the user profile vector and the document vector associated with the selected document;
determining a correlation score between the user and other users corresponding to the selected document; and
combining the relevance score and the correlation score to determine a final ranking score for the selected document; and
presenting the selected documents to the user according to the final ranking scores. - View Dependent Claims (32, 33, 34, 35, 36)
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37. A computer program product for presenting documents from a document collection to a user, the computer program product stored on a computer readable medium and adapted to perform a method comprising:
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storing a user profile vector for the user, the user profile vector in a vector space derived from terms contained in the document collection and including a plurality of weights, each weight associated with a term in the document collection;
selecting a plurality of documents from the document collection, each document associated with a document vector in the term vector space;
for each selected document;
determining a relevance score, the relevance score based on a relationship between the user profile vector and the document vector associated with the selected document;
determining a correlation score between the user and other users corresponding to the selected document; and
combining the relevance score and the correlation score to determine a final ranking score for the selected document; and
presenting the selected documents to the user according to the final ranking scores. - View Dependent Claims (38, 39, 40, 41, 42)
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43. A system for presenting documents to a user, the documents each associated with a document vector in a vector space and stored in a document database coupled to the system, the system comprising:
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a user database storing a user profile vector for the user, the user profile vector in the vector space derived from terms contained in the document database and including a plurality of weights, each weight associated with a term in the document collection; and
a server coupled to the user database and the document database for selecting documents from the document database, wherein the server;
determines, for each selected document, a relevance score, the relevance score based on a relationship between the user profile vector and the document vector associated with the selected document;
determines, for each selected document, a correlation score between the user and other users corresponding to the selected document;
combines, for each selected document, the relevance score and the correlation score to determine a final ranking score for the selected document; and
presents the selected documents to the user according to the final ranking scores. - View Dependent Claims (44, 45, 46, 47, 48)
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49. A method of presenting information items from an information item collection to a user, the method comprising:
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storing a user profile vector for the user, the user profile vector in a vector space derived from attributes in the information item collection and including a plurality of weights, each weight associated with an attribute in the information item collection;
selecting a plurality of information items from the information item collection, each information item associated with an information item vector in the attribute vector space;
for each selected information item;
determining a relevance score, the relevance score based on a relationship between the user profile vector and the information item vector associated with the selected information item;
determining a correlation score between the user and other users corresponding to the selected information item; and
combining the relevance score and the correlation score to determine a final ranking score for the selected information item; and
presenting the selected information items to the user according to the final ranking scores. - View Dependent Claims (50, 51, 52, 53, 54)
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55. A computer program product for presenting information items from an information item collection to a user, the computer program product stored on a computer readable medium and adapted to perform a method comprising:
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storing a user profile vector for the user, the user profile vector in a vector space derived from attributes contained in the information item collection and including a plurality of weights, each weight associated with an attribute in the information item collection;
selecting a plurality of information items from the information item collection, each information item associated with an information item vector in the attribute vector space;
for each selected information item;
determining a relevance score, the relevance score based on a relationship between the user profile vector and the information item vector associated with the selected information item;
determining a correlation score between the user and other users corresponding to the selected information item; and
combining the relevance score and the correlation score to determine a final ranking score for the selected information item; and
presenting the selected information items to the user according to the final ranking scores. - View Dependent Claims (56, 57, 58, 59, 60)
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61. A system for presenting information items to a user, the information items each associated with an information item vector in the attribute vector space and stored in an information item database coupled to the system, the system comprising:
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a user database storing a user profile vector for the user, the user profile vector in a vector space derived from attributes contained in the information item database and including a plurality of weights, each weight associated with an attribute in the information item collection; and
a server coupled to the user database and the information item database for selecting information items from the information item database, wherein the server;
determines, for each selected information item, a relevance score, the relevance score based on a relationship between the user profile vector and the information item vector associated with the selected information item;
determines, for each selected information item, a correlation score between the user and other users corresponding to the selected information item;
combines, for each selected information item, the relevance score and the correlation score to determine a final ranking score for the selected information item; and
presents the selected information items to the user according to the final ranking scores. - View Dependent Claims (62, 63, 64, 65, 66)
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67. A method of presenting documents from a document collection to a user, the method comprising:
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storing a user profile for the user, the user profile including terms contained in the document collection and weights respectively associated with the terms;
selecting a plurality of documents from the document collection, each document associated with a document profile, the document profile including terms contained in its associated document;
for each selected document;
determining a relevance score, the relevance score based on a relationship between the user profile and the document profile associated with the selected document;
determining a correlation score between the user and other users corresponding to the selected document; and
combining the relevance score and the correlation score to determine a final ranking score for the selected document; and
presenting the selected documents to the user according to the final ranking scores. - View Dependent Claims (68, 69)
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70. A method comprising:
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storing a user profile for a user, the user profile including terms contained in a document collection and weights respectively associated with the terms;
selecting a plurality of documents from the document collection, each document associated with a document profile, the document profile including terms contained in its associated document;
for each selected document;
determining a relevance score, the relevance score based on a relationship between the user profile and the document profile associated with the selected document;
determining a correlation score between the user and other users corresponding to the selected document; and
combining the relevance score and the correlation score to determine a final ranking score for the selected document; and
presenting one or more recommendations to the user based on the final ranking scores. - View Dependent Claims (71)
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72. A method of presenting documents received from a document collection to a user, the method comprising:
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retrieving a user profile vector associated with the user, the user profile vector in a vector space derived from terms in the document collection;
receiving a plurality of documents from the document collection, each document having a document vector in the vector space;
for each received document;
determining a relevance score for the document by a vector operation comparing the user profile vector and the document vector; and
determining a correlation score between the user and other users corresponding to the document; and
ranking the received documents based on a combination of each received document'"'"'s relevance score and correlation score for presentation to the user. - View Dependent Claims (73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81)
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82. A computer program product for presenting documents received from a document collection to a user, the computer program product stored on a computer readable medium and configured to perform a method comprising:
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retrieving a user profile vector associated with the user, the user profile vector in a vector space derived from terms in the document collection;
receiving a plurality of documents from the document collection, each document having a document vector in the vector space;
for each received document;
determining a relevance score for the document by a vector operation comparing the user profile vector and the document vector; and
determining a correlation score between the user and other users corresponding to the document; and
ranking the received documents based on a combination of each received document'"'"'s relevance score and correlation score for presentation to the user. - View Dependent Claims (83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91)
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92. A system for presenting documents to a user, the documents each having a document vector in a vector space and stored in a document database coupled to the system, the system comprising:
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a user database storing a user profile vector associated with the user, the user profile vector in the vector space derived from terms in the document database;
a server coupled to the document database and the user database, the server receiving documents from the document database and determining a relevance score for each of the received documents by a vector operation comparing the user profile vector and the document vector and determining a correlation score for each of the received documents between the user and other users corresponding to the document and ranking the received documents based on a combination of each received document'"'"'s relevance score and correlation score for presentation to the user. - View Dependent Claims (93, 94, 95, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101)
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102. A method of presenting information items from an information item collection to a user, the method comprising:
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accessing a user profile associated with the user;
for each information item in the information item collection;
determining a relevance score for the information item based on a relationship between the user profile and the information item; and
determining a correlation score between the user and other users corresponding to the information item; and
ranking the information items based on a combination of each information item'"'"'s relevance score and correlation score for presentation to the user.
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103. A computer program product for presenting information items from an information item collection to a user, the computer program product stored on a computer readable medium and configured to perform a method comprising:
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accessing a user profile associated with the user;
for each information item in the information item collection;
determining a relevance score for the information item based on a relationship between the user profile and the information item; and
determining a correlation score between the user and other users corresponding to the information item; and
ranking the information items based on a combination of each information item'"'"'s relevance score and correlation score for presentation to the user.
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104. A system for presenting information items to a user, the information items stored in an information item database coupled to the system, the system comprising:
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a user database storing a user profile associated with the user;
a server coupled to the information item database and the user database, the server identifying information items from the information item database and determining a relevance score for each of the identified information items based on a relationship between the user profile and the information item and determining a correlation score for each of the identified information items between the user and other users corresponding to the information item and ranking the identified information items based on a combination of each identified information item'"'"'s relevance score and correlation score for presentation to the user.
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Specification