Hybrid review synthesis

• US 9,483,730 B2
• Filed: 12/07/2012
• Issued: 11/01/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/07/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Di Fabbrizio, Giuseppe, Stent, Amanda Joy
• Primary Examiner(s): Chaki, Kakali
• Assistant Examiner(s): COUGHLAN, PETER D
• Application Number:
  US13/707,978
• Publication Number:
  US 20140164302A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,425 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/02 Knowledge representation; Symbolic representation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0631 Item recommendations

Abstract

A method of generating a summary review of an entity from a set of reviews includes generating a distribution and determining a polarity of the distribution associated with a plurality of aspect ratings based on the set of reviews. The set of reviews are associated with the entity, and the plurality of aspect ratings are associated with an aspect, or feature, of the entity. The method includes selecting an opinion correlated with the polarity from the set of reviews, and generating the summary review, the summary review comprising: a summary statement based on the distribution and the polarity; and the opinion. An apparatus and computer-readable device are also disclosed.

Claims

1. A method of generating a summary review associated with an entity, the method comprising:

generating, using a processing device, a distribution of aspect ratings, the aspect ratings being based on a plurality of textual opinions of a set of reviews by a reviewer, the set of reviews being associated with the entity, the aspect ratings being generated by the processing device as a numerical indication of polarity and strength of polarity associated with aspects represented in the plurality of textual opinions, each of the aspects representing a feature associated with the entity;

selecting, using the processing device, an opinion from the plurality of textual opinions, the opinion being selected based on the strength of polarity of an aspect rating that corresponds to the opinion relative to the distribution;

generating, using the processing device, the summary review in response to an inquiry from a user, the summary review comprising a summary statement and the opinion, the summary statement including textual data that indicates a characteristic of the polarity and the strength of polarity of the aspect ratings of the distribution, retrieving metadata associated with each of the set of reviews, and calculating a confidence score associated with each of the set of reviews based on the metadata, wherein the metadata includes demographic information for the reviewer and the user comprising age, sex, income and education of each, the opinion selected from the set of reviews being associated with a high confidence score, the high confidence score indicating the opinion includes information targeted to the user; and

communicating and downloading the summary review, using a wireless network, to a mobile communication device in response to the inquiry from the user.

2. The method of claim 1, the set of reviews including a plurality of sentences, the summary review comprising a sentence extracted from the set of reviews, the sentence being selected from the plurality of sentences based on a quotable quality of the sentence.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising defining a plurality of aspects representing a plurality of features associated with the entity, generating the distribution based on the polarity and the strength of polarity of aspect ratings associated with each of the plurality of aspects, selecting a plurality of opinions from the set of reviews based on the strength of polarity of aspect ratings corresponding to the plurality of textual opinions, the summary review comprising the plurality of opinions selected.

4. The method of claim 3, the plurality of opinions selected being presented in a predetermined order, the predetermined order being based on the strength of polarity associated with each of the plurality of aspects.

5. The method of claim 3, further comprising calculating an overall rating associated with the plurality of aspects based on the plurality of opinions selected, the summary review including a statement representing the overall rating associated with the entity.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the metadata includes a time stamp to indicate timeliness, geographic location, and authorship information associated with the opinion.

7. A non-transitory computer-readable storage device storing instructions that, when executed by a processing device, cause the processing device to perform operations comprising:

generating a distribution of aspect ratings, the aspect ratings being based on a plurality of textual opinions of a set of reviews by a reviewer, the set of reviews being associated with an entity, the aspect ratings being generated by the processing device as a numerical indication of polarity and strength of polarity associated with aspects represented in the plurality of textual opinions, each of the aspects representing a feature associated with the entity;

selecting an opinion from the plurality of textual opinions, the opinion being selected based on the strength of polarity of an aspect rating that corresponds to the opinion relative to the distribution;

generating a summary review in response to an inquiry from a user, the summary review comprising a summary statement and the opinion, the summary statement including textual data that indicates a characteristic of the polarity and the strength of polarity of the aspect ratings of the distribution, retrieving metadata associated with each of the set of reviews, and calculating a confidence score associated with each of the set of reviews based on the metadata, wherein the metadata includes demographic information for the reviewer and the user comprising age, sex, income and education of each, the opinion selected from the set of reviews being associated with a high confidence score, the high confidence score indicating the opinion includes information targeted to the user; and

communicating and downloading the summary review, using a wireless communication network, to a mobile communication device in response to the inquiry from the user.

8. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 7, the set of reviews including a plurality of sentences, wherein the operations further comprise extracting a sentence from the set of reviews, the summary review comprising the sentence, the sentence being selected from the plurality of sentences based on a quotable quality of the sentences.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 7, wherein the operations further comprise:

generating the summary review associated with the entity by defining a plurality of aspects representing a plurality of features associated with the entity;

generating the distribution based on the polarity and the strength of polarity of aspect ratings associated with each of the plurality of aspects; and

selecting a plurality of opinions from the set of reviews based on the strength of polarity of aspect ratings corresponding to the plurality of textual opinions, the summary review comprising the plurality of opinions selected.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 9, wherein the operations further comprise presenting the plurality of opinions selected in a predetermined order, the predetermined order being based on the strength of polarity associated with each of the plurality of aspects.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 9, wherein the operations further comprise generating the summary review by calculating an overall rating associated with the plurality of aspects based on the plurality of opinions selected, the summary review including a statement representing the overall rating associated with the entity.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 7, wherein the metadata includes a time stamp to indicate timeliness, geographic location, and authorship information associated with the opinion.

13. A system that generates a summary review associated with an entity, the system comprising:

a mobile communication device;

a processing device; and

memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processing device, cause the processing device to perform operations comprising;

generating a distribution of aspect ratings, the aspect ratings being based on a plurality of textual opinions of a set of reviews by a reviewer, the set of reviews being associated with the entity, the aspect ratings being generated by the processing device as a numerical indication of polarity and strength of polarity associated with aspects represented in the plurality of textual opinions, each of the aspects representing a feature associated with the entity;

selecting an opinion from the plurality of textual opinions, the opinion being selected based on the strength of polarity of an aspect rating that corresponds to the opinion relative to the distribution;

generating the summary review in response to an inquiry from a user, the summary review comprising a summary statement and the opinion, the summary statement including textual data that indicates a characteristic of the polarity and the strength of polarity of the aspect ratings of the distribution, retrieving metadata associated with each of the set of reviews, and calculating a confidence score associated with each of the set of reviews based on the metadata, wherein the metadata includes demographic information for the reviewer and the user comprising age, sex, income and education of each, the opinion selected from the set of reviews being associated with a high confidence score, the high confidence score indicating the opinion includes information targeted to the user; and

communicating and downloading the summary review, using a wireless network, to a mobile communication device in response to the inquiry from the user.

14. The system of claim 13, the set of reviews including a plurality of sentences, wherein the summary review comprises a sentence extracted from the set of reviews, the sentence being selected from the plurality of sentences based on a quotable quality of the sentence.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the operations further comprise:

defining a plurality of aspects representing a plurality of features associated with the entity,

generating the distribution based on the polarity and the strength of polarity of aspect ratings associated with each of a plurality of aspects representing a plurality of features associated with the entity; and

selecting a plurality of opinions from the set of reviews based on the strength of polarity of aspect ratings corresponding to the plurality of textual opinions, the summary review comprising the plurality of the opinions selected.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the operations further comprise presenting the plurality of opinions selected in a predetermined order, the predetermined order being based on the strength of polarity associated with each of the plurality of aspects.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the operations further comprise calculating an overall rating associated with the plurality of aspects based on the plurality of opinions selected, the summary review including a statement representing the overall rating associated with the entity.