Method and system for real-time information analysis of textual material

• US 5,559,940 A
• Filed: 06/05/1995
• Issued: 09/24/1996
• Est. Priority Date: 12/14/1990
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: William H. Hutson
• Original Assignee: William H. Hutson
• Inventors: Hutson, William H.
• Primary Examiner(s): Herndon, Heather R.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Vo, Cliff N.
• Application Number:
  US08/462,129
• Time in Patent Office: 477 Days
• Field of Search: 395/145, 395/150, 395/151, 395/161
• US Class Current: 715/234
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 15/899 Combination of imaging systems with ancillary equipment
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 3/802 Systems for determining direction or deviation from predetermined direction
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/20 Stereoscopic displays; Three-dimensional displays; Pseudo-three-dimensional displays
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/6245 Stereoscopic displays; Three-dimensional displays; Pseudo-three dimensional displays
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/30 of unstructured textual data document management systems G06F16/93
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/253 Grammatical analysis; Style critique

Abstract

A multi-dimensional processing and display system that is used with equal data to provide a system by which large volumes of such textual data may be efficiently sorted and searched. Textual data that is input to the multi-dimensional processing and display system is from one or more documents that are reformatted and translated into one or more numeric matrices. The matrices are modified to enhance and/or suppress certain words, phrases, subjects, etc. Thereafter, a single two-dimensional data is formed by concatenating the numeric matrices. The multi-dimensional processing and display system creates and maintains a historical database which is also concatenated in the two-dimensional matrix. Once the textual data is in the form of a two-dimensional matrix, the data can be analyzed efficiently, for example, using singular value decomposition (SVD). In doing so, the two-dimensional concatenated matrix is decomposed to obtain a compressed form of the numeric matrix. Certain data elements in the two-dimensional matrix may be enhanced, while certain other data elements may be suppressed. After data enhancement and/or suppression, the two-dimensional matrix is partitioned and rearranged to form enhanced multi-dimensional matrix. All or portions of the enhanced multi-dimensional matrix are then visually displayed. Lexical, semantic, and/or textual constructs of interest may be displayed as opaque objects within a three-dimensional transparent cube, enabling a user to review many documents quickly and easily.

Claims

1. A system for at least enhancing selected information contained in a data containing media, comprising:

input means for inputting to the system data representing a textual document having a number of human-readable words;

first processing means that receives the data input from the input means, the first processing means for converting the input data from a first form to a second form;

second processing means for receiving an output of the first processing means, the second processing means for compressing the converted input data into compressed data structures, with the compressed data structures having information regarding a location and relative importance of elements of the input data according to a predetermined translation means, and with at least a subset of the compressed data structures being enhanced with respect to a remainder of the compressed data structures by modifying at least the subset of the compressed data structures;

third processing means for receiving an output of the second processing means, the third processing means for expanding the compressed data structures, with the subset of the compressed data structures enhanced, to a full form of data structures, the full form of data structures being representative of the converted input data with enhanced data structures being distinguishable from a remainder of data structures; and

readable form means for receiving an output of the third processing means, the readable form means for providing in readable form the full form of data structures representative of the converted input data, with the enhanced data structures being represented differently than the remainder of data structures by the readable form means.

2. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the first processing means includes means for converting the input data into at least a two-dimensional matrix.

3. The system as recited in claim 2, wherein the first processing means includes means for converting the input data into at least a two-dimensional numeric matrix.

4. The system as recited in claim 2, wherein the second processing means includes means for decomposing the two-dimensional matrix into compressed data structures representative of the two-dimensional matrix, with the compressed data structures having information regarding a location and an importance of each element of the two-dimensional matrix, according to a predetermined translation means and with at least the subset of the compressed data structures being enhanced with respect to a remainder of the compressed data structures by modifying the subset of the compressed data structures.

5. The system as recited in claim 4, wherein the two-dimensional matrix is decomposed using singular value decomposition.

6. The system as recited in claim 4, wherein the two-dimensional matrix is decomposed using eigenvector decomposition.

7. The system of claim 4, further comprising:

storage means for receiving and storing the compressed data structures output from the second processing means; and

query means, connected to the storage means, for identifying compressed data structures in the storage means that have at least a predetermined correlation with the subset of the compressed data structures.

8. The system of claim 4, wherein the first processing means converts the input data from a first form to a three-dimensional matrix and converts the three-dimensional matrix to a two-dimensional matrix.

9. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the first processing means combines historical data representing previously determined features of interest of previous input data with newly input data when converting newly input data from the first form to the second form.

10. The system of claim 9, further comprising:

storage means for receiving and storing the compressed data structures output from the second processing means; and

query means, connected to the storage means, for identifying compressed data structures in the storage means that have at least a predetermined correlation with the subset of the compressed data structures.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the first processing means converts the input data from a first form to a three-dimensional matrix and converts the three-dimensional matrix to a two-dimensional matrix.

12. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the readable form means includes a display means.

13. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

storage means for receiving and storing the compressed data structures output from the second processing means; and

query means, connected to the storage means, for identifying compressed data structures in the storage means that have at least a predetermined correlation with the subset of the compressed data structures.

14. The system of claim 13, further comprising a comparator for determining differences between the subset of the compressed data structures and the compressed data structures identified by a query means.

15. The system of claim 14, further comprising a comparator for determining differences between the subset of the compressed data structures and the compressed data structures identified by a query means.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the first processing means converts the input data from a first form to a three-dimensional matrix and converts the three-dimensional matrix to a two-dimensional matrix.

17. The system of claim 16, further comprising a comparator for determining differences between the subset of the compressed data structures and the compressed data structures identified by a query means.

18. A system for at least enhancing and suppressing selected information contained in data containing media, comprising:

input means for inputting to the system data representing a textual document having a number of human-readable words;

means for compressing the input data into compressed data structures having information regarding a location and relative importance of elements of the input data according to a predetermined translation means, at least a first subset of the compressed data structures being enhanced and a second subset of the compressed data structures being suppressed with respect to a remainder of the compressed data structures by modifying at least the first and second subsets of the compressed data structures;

means for expanding the compressed data structures, including the first and second subsets of the compressed data, to a full form of data structures that is representative of the input data with enhanced and suppressed data structures being distinguishable from a remainder of data structures; and

means for providing in readable form the full form of the data structures representative of the converted input data, the enhanced and suppressed data structures being represented differently than the remainder of data structures by the providing means.

19. The system as recited in claim 18, wherein the compressing means includes means for converting the input data into at least a two-dimensional matrix.

20. The system as recited in claim 19, wherein the compressing means includes means for converting the input data into at least a two-dimensional numeric matrix.

21. The system as recited in claim 19, wherein the compressing means includes means for decomposing the two-dimensional matrix into compressed data structures representative of the two-dimensional matrix, with the compressed data structures having information regarding a location and an importance of each element of the two-dimensional matrix according to a predetermined translation means, and with at least the first subset of the compressed data structures being enhanced and the second subset of the compressed data structures being suppressed with respect to a remainder of the compressed data structures by modifying at least the first and second subsets of the compressed data structures.

22. The system as recited in claim 21, wherein the two-dimensional numeric matrix is decomposed using singular value decomposition.

23. The system as recited in claim 21, wherein the two-dimensional matrix is decomposed using eigenvector decomposition.

24. The system as recited in claim 18, wherein the compressing means combines historical data with the input data, historical data representing previously determined features of interest of previous input data.

25. The system as recited in claim 18, wherein the readable form means includes a display means.

26. A computer-implemented method for at least enhancing selected information contained in a data containing media, the method comprising the steps of:

(a) receiving data representing a textual document having a number of human-readable words;

(b) converting the input data from a first form to converted input data;

(c) compressing the converted input data into compressed data structures such that the compressed data structures have information regarding a location and a relative importance of elements in the input data, at least a subset of the compressed data structures being enhanced with respect to a remainder of the compressed data structures by modifying at least the subset of the compressed data structures;

(d) expanding the compressed data structures to a full form of data structures being representative of the converted input data with enhanced data structures being distinguishable from a remainder of data structures; and

(e) providing in readable form the full form of data structures representative of the converted input data, the enhanced data structures being represented differently from the remainder of data structures by the readable form means.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein step (b) includes combining the input data and historical data, historical data representing previously determined features of interest of previously input data.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein step (b) further includes converting the combined input data and historical data into a two-dimensional matrix.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein step (c) includes decomposing the two-dimensional matrix into compressed data structures representative of the two-dimensional matrix, with the compressed data structures having information regarding a location and an importance of each element of the two-dimensional matrix, and with at least the subset of the compressed data structures being enhanced with respect to a remainder of the compressed data structures by modifying the subset of the compressed data structures.

30. The method of claim 26, further including, after step (c), the steps of:

converting the input data from a first form to a three-dimensional matrix; and

converting the three-dimensional matrix to a two-dimensional matrix.

31. A computer-implemented method for at least enhancing selected information contained in a data containing media, the method comprising the steps of:

(a) receiving input data representing a textual document having a number of human-readable words;

(b) compressing the input data into compressed data structures having information regarding a location and a relative importance of elements in the input data, at least a subset of the compressed data structures being enhanced with respect to a remainder of the compressed data structures by modifying the compressed data structures;

(c) expanding the compressed data structures to a full form of data structures that are representative of the input data with enhanced data structures being distinguishable from a remainder of data structures; and

(d) providing in readable form the full form of data structures representative of the converted input data, the enhanced data structures being represented differently from the remainder of data structures.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein step (b) includes combining the input data and historical data, historical data representing previously determined features of interest of previously input data.

33. The method of claim 32, wherein step (b) further includes converting the combined input data and historical data into a two-dimensional matrix.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein step (c) includes decomposing the two-dimensional matrix into compressed data structures representative of the two-dimensional matrix, with the compressed data structures having information regarding a location and an importance of each element of the two-dimensional matrix, and with at least the subset of the compressed data structures being enhanced with respect to a remainder of the compressed data structures by modifying the subset of the compressed data structures.

35. The method of claim 31, further including, after step (c), the steps of:

converting the input data from a first form to a three-dimensional matrix; and

converting the three-dimensional matrix to a two-dimensional matrix.

36. The method of claim 31, wherein the relative importance is determined by pre-determined translation means.

37. The method of claim 31, further comprising the steps of:

storing the converted data structures; and

identifying certain of the stored compressed data structures in response to a user-initiated query.