Extensible structured controlled vocabularies

• US 20040034665A1
• Filed: 06/17/2003
• Published: 02/19/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 06/17/2002
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Beingmeta, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Beingmeta, Inc.
• Inventors: Haase, Kenneth
• Application Number:
  US10/463,116
• Publication Number:
  US 20040034665A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/104.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/169 Annotation, e.g. comment data or footnotes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/237 Lexical tools
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/242 Dictionaries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/258 Heading extraction; Automatic titling; Numbering
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/284 Lexical analysis, e.g. tokenisation or collocates

Abstract

The present invention relates to systems and methods for describing unstructured or semi-structured documents in a collection to improve the effectiveness of search, the quality of human browsing, and the automation of information handling processes. One embodiment of the invention provides methods for annotating documents and fragments of documents with terms from an Extensible Structured Controlled Vocabulary (ESCV). This vocabulary can be an artificial language whose terms are connected to one another by a fixed variety of relations and which can be used in expanding searches, presenting documents or sets of documents, or making decisions about document disposition. The vocabulary can also be extended with new terms but only by relating those new terms to existing terms in the vocabulary.

Claims

1. A method for managing a user-extensible structured controlled vocabulary, the method comprising:

receiving new term data from a user; and

allowing the user to associate the new term data with related concepts by allowing the user to use a plurality of relations including an equivalence relation.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein allowing the user to associate the new term data comprises allowing the user to use a generality relation, a part/whole relation, a categorization relation, a purpose/dependency relation, and a sequencing relation.