METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR DOCUMENT STORAGE MANAGEMENT BASED ON DOCUMENT CONTENT

• US 20020052898A1
• Filed: 04/14/1998
• Published: 05/02/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 04/14/1998
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Majandro LLC (IP Edge LLC)
• Original Assignee: Xerox Corporation (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Inventors: GOLOVCHINSKY, GENE, SCHILIT, WILLIAM NOAH, PRICE, MORGAN N.
• Granted Patent: US 6,842,876 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/530
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/355 Class or cluster creation or modification

Abstract

A document storage management system and method that manages the storage of documents based upon the similarity of the content of the documents. Groups of documents are created based upon the similarity of the contents of the documents. Those groups are displayed to the user in a ranked list of selectable groups to permit selection of a group or document. The storage of the selected group or document is then managed by, for example, deleting, compressing, or copying. The displayed list may be ranked based upon a least recently used policy, the relevance to a predetermined topic, the size of the group, the radius of the group based upon the maximum distance of any document from the group centroid, the number of documents in the group and any other combination of parameters.

Claims

1. A document storage management system communicating with a document storage device, a plurality of documents stored on the document storage device, the system comprising:

a group generator that generates at least one group of documents from the plurality of documents based on the content of the plurality of documents;

a selector that is capable of selecting one of the at least one group of documents; and

a storage manager that manages storage of the selected group of documents.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the group generator generates the at least one group of documents based on the similarity of the content of the plurality of documents.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the group generator generates at least one group of documents based further on at least one attribute of each of the plurality of documents.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the storage manager deletes the selected group of documents.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the storage manager compresses the selected group of documents.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the storage manager copies the selected group of documents.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising a presentation device that presents a list of at least one selectable group identifier that corresponds to the at least one group of documents.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the group generator orders the plurality of groups based on at least one group characteristic.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the group generator comprises a keyword generator that generates a set of keywords for each group and the at least one group characteristic for each group is the corresponding set of keywords.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the group generator comprises a group score calculator that determines a group score for each group.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the group score for each group is the sum of at least one of:

a product of a first variable and a least-recently-used metric of that group;

a product of a second variable and a relevance metric of that group;

a product of a third variable and a size of that group;

a product of a fourth variable and a radius of that group; and

a product of a fifth variable and a total number of documents in that group.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the relevance metric for each group is based on the relevance of that group to at least one predetermined topic.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the radius for each group is based on a maximum distance of the documents from a group centroid.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein the at least one group characteristic is the group score.

15. The system of claim 1, further comprising a group filter that identifies groups that have at least one group attribute that satisfies at least one predetermined criterion.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein said group filter removes the identified groups from the list of groups.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the grouping is based on the similarity of the content of the plurality of documents.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the plurality of documents are grouped further based upon at least one attribute of each of the plurality of documents.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein managing the storage comprises deleting the selected at least one of the plurality of groups.

21. The method of claim 17, wherein the step of managing comprises compressing the selected at least one of the plurality of groups.

22. The method of claim 17, wherein the selected at least one of the plurality of documents is stored remotely from the system and wherein the step of managing comprises copying the selected at least one of the plurality of groups into a memory device that is local to the system.

23. The method of claim 17, further comprising generating a plurality of group keywords for each of the plurality of groups.

24. The method of claim 17, further comprising displaying a plurality of selectable group identifiers corresponding to the plurality of groups, wherein the step of selecting comprises selecting at least one of the selectable group identifiers corresponding to the selected at least one of the plurality of groups.

25. The method of claim 17, further comprising the step of ordering the plurality of groups according to at least one group characteristic.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the ordering step comprises determining a group score.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein determining the group score for each group comprises summing at least one of:

a product of a first variable and a least-recently-used metric of each group;

a product of a second variable and a relevance metric of each group;

a product of a third variable and a size of each group;

a product of a fourth variable and a radius of each group; and

a product of a fifth variable and a total number of documents in each group.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the relevance metric for each group is based on a relevance of that group to at least one topic.

29. The method of claim 27, wherein the radius for each group is based on a maximum distance of the documents in that group from the group centroid.

30. The method of claim 17, further comprising generating set of group keywords for each of the plurality of groups.

31. The method of claim 17, wherein managing the storage comprises deleting the selected at least one of the documents.

32. The method of claim 20, wherein managing the storage comprises compressing the selected at least one of the documents.

33. The method of claim 20, wherein managing the storage comprises copying the selected at least one of the documents.

35. The interface of claim 34, wherein the plurality of documents are grouped based on the similarity of the content of the plurality of documents.

36. The interface of claim 34, wherein the plurality of documents are grouped further based on at least one attribute of each of the plurality of documents.

37. The interface of claim 34, wherein the command is a command to delete the at least one selected group of documents and the storage manager deletes the selected at least one group of documents.

38. The interface of claim 34, wherein the command is a command to compress the at least one selected group of documents and the storage manager compresses the selected at least one group of documents.

39. The interface of claim 34, wherein the command is a command to copy the at least one selected group of documents and the storage manager copies the selected at least one group of documents.

40. The interface of claim 34, wherein the at least one selectable group identifier is displayed in a list that is ordered based on at least one group characteristic.

41. The interface of claim 40, wherein the at least one selectable group identifier comprises a set of keywords for each group and the at least one group characteristic for each group is the corresponding set of keywords.

42. The interface of claim 40, wherein the at least one group characteristic is a group score.

43. The interface of claim 42, wherein the group score is the sum of at least one of:

a product of a first variable and a least-recently-used metric of that group;

a product of a second variable and a relevance metric of that group;

a product of a third variable and a size of that group;

a product of a fourth variable and a radius of that group; and

a product of a fifth variable and a total number of documents in that group.

44. The interface of claim 43, wherein the relevance metric for each group is based on the relevance of that group to at least one predetermined topic.

45. The interface of claim 43, wherein the radius for each group is based on a maximum distance of the documents from a group centroid.

46. The interface of claim 34, wherein the at least one selectable group identifier represents a corresponding group of documents that each have a group attribute that satisfies at least one predetermined criterion.

17. A method for managing a document storage system, comprising:

grouping a plurality of documents stored in a document storage device into a plurality of groups based on the content of the plurality of documents;

selecting at least one of the plurality of groups; and

managing the storage of the selected at least one of the plurality of groups.

34. A graphical user interface for managing the storage of a plurality of documents that are stored in a document storage device, the interface comprising:

a display for displaying information to a user;

at least one selectable group identifier visible on the display, the at least one selectable group identifier representing corresponding groups of documents, wherein the groups of documents comprise the plurality of documents that are grouped based on the content of the plurality of documents, wherein the at least one selectable group identifier is responsive to a selection of the at least one selectable group identifier to select a corresponding at least one group of documents; and

a storage manager responsive to a command to perform a storage management function on the selected at least one group of documents.