Automatic, computer-based similarity calculation system for quantifying the similarity of text expressions

A method for the calculation of similarity weight values for pairs of expressions, a similarity weight value quantifying the similarity of the two expressions of one pair of expressions, a collection of text documents which comprises at least one text document being stored in digital form, a quantity of candidate expressions ti which comprises several expressions being stored, each expression ti occurring in at least one of the text documents of the collection, and at least one pair of candidate expressions t1 and t2 being selected from the quantity of candidate expressions and a similarity weight value agw(t1, t2) being calculated for the at least one selected pair of expressions, the method comprising calculating the similarity weight value agw(t1, t2) on the basis of a similarity measure occ_con(t1, t2) which takes into account both the total frequency of the common occurrence of the two expressions t1 and t2 of the pair of expressions within one and the same text segment in a quantity of several text segments which are selectable or are selected from the collection of text documents and the total number of different context expressions in this quantity of text segments, a context expression being an expression which occurs in this quantity of text segments in at least one text segment together with the expression t1 and in at least one text segment together with the expression t2 and which corresponds neither to t1 nor t2.

A method for at least one of automatic, computer-based selection of at least one of information, expressions of and terms from a quantity of text documents and structuring at least one of information, expressions and terms by calculation of similarity weight values for pairs of expressions, a similarity weight value quantifying the similarity of the two expressions of one pair of expressions, a collection of text documents which comprises at least one text document being stored in digital form, a quantity of candidate expressions ti which comprises several expressions being stored, each expression ti occurring in at least one of the text documents of the collection, and at least one pair of candidate expressions t1 and t2 being selected from the quantity of candidate expressions and a similarity weight value agw(t1, t2) being calculated for the at least one selected pair of expressions, the method comprising calculating the similarity weight value agw(t1, t2) on the basis of a similarity measure occ_con(t1, t2) which takes into account both the total frequency of the common occurrence of the two expressions t1 and t2 of the pair of expressions within the same text segment in a quantity of several text segments which are selectable or are selected from the collection of text documents and the total number of different context expressions in this quantity of text segments, a context expression being an expression which occurs in this quantity of text segments in at least one text segment together with the expression t1 and in at least one text segment together with the expression t2 and which corresponds neither to t1 nor t2.

A method for at least one of automatic, computer-based thesaurus construction and ontology construction by calculation of similarity weight values for pairs of expressions, a similarity weight value quantifying the similarity of the two expressions of one pair of expressions, a collection of text documents which comprises at least one text document being stored in digital form, a quantity of candidate expressions ti which comprises several expressions being stored, each expression ti occurring in at least one of the text documents of the collection, and at least one pair of candidate expressions t1 and t2 being selected from the quantity of candidate expressions and a similarity weight value agw(t1, t2) being calculated for the at least one selected pair of expressions, the method comprising calculating the similarity weight value agw(t1, t2) on the basis of a similarity measure occ_con(t1, t2) which takes into account both the total frequency of the common occurrence of the two expressions t1 and t2 of the pair of expressions within the same text segment in a quantity of several text segments which are selectable or are selected from the collection of text documents and the total number of different context expressions in this quantity of text segments, a context expression being an expression which occurs in this quantity of text segments in at least one text segment together with the expression t1 and in at least one text segment together with the expression t2 and which corresponds neither to t1 nor t2.

A method for at least one of construction of semantic relationships between terms of a thesaurus and terms of an ontology by calculation of similarity weight values for pairs of expressions, a similarity weight value quantifying the similarity of the two expressions of one pair of expressions, a collection of text documents which comprises at least one text document being stored in digital form, a quantity of candidate expressions ti which comprises several expressions being stored, each expression ti occurring in at least one of the text documents of the collection, and at least one pair of candidate expressions t1 and t2 being selected from the quantity of candidate expressions and a similarity weight value agw(t1, t2) being calculated for the at least one selected pair of expressions, the method comprising calculating the similarity weight value agw(t1, t2) on the basis of a similarity measure occ_con(t1, t2) which takes into account both the total frequency of the common occurrence of the two expressions t1 and t2 of the pair of expressions within the same text segment in a quantity of several text segments which are selectable or are selected from the collection of text documents and the total number of different context expressions in this quantity of text segments, a context expression being an expression which occurs in this quantity of text segments in at least one text segment together with the expression t1 and in at least one text segment together with the expression t2 and which corresponds neither to t1 nor t2.

A method for automatic, computer-based classification of text documents by calculation of similarity weight values for pairs of expressions, a similarity weight value quantifying the similarity of the two expressions of one pair of expressions, a collection of text documents which comprises at least one text document being stored in digital form, a quantity of candidate expressions ti which comprises several expressions being stored, each expression ti occurring in at least one of the text documents of the collection, and at least one pair of candidate expressions t1 and t2 being selected from the quantity of candidate expressions and a similarity weight value agw(t1, t2) being calculated for the at least one selected pair of expressions, the method comprising calculating the similarity weight value agw(t1, t2) on the basis of a similarity measure occ_con(t1, t2) which takes into account both the total frequency of the common occurrence of the two expressions t1 and t2 of the pair of expressions within the same text segment in a quantity of several text segments which are selectable or are selected from the collection of text documents and the total number of different context expressions in this quantity of text segments, a context expression being an expression which occurs in this quantity of text segments in at least one text segment together with the expression t1 and in at least one text segment together with the expression t2 and which corresponds neither to t1 nor t2.

A method for at least one of partially automatic, computer-based inquiry expansion, fully automatic, computer-based inquiry expansion, partially automatic, computer-based inquiry refinement, fully automatic computer-based inquiry refinement, partially automatic, computer-based interactive inquiry expansion, fully automatic, computer-based interactive inquiry expansion, partially automatic, computer-based interactive inquiry refinement, fully automatic, computer-based interactive inquiry refinement, internet search machine use and data bank search machine use by calculation of similarity weight values for pairs of expressions, a similarity weight value quantifying the similarity of the two expressions of one pair of expressions, a collection of text documents which comprises at least one text document being stored in digital form, a quantity of candidate expressions ti which comprises several expressions being stored, each expression ti occurring in at least one of the text documents of the collection, and at least one pair of candidate expressions t1 and t2 being selected from the quantity of candidate expressions and a similarity weight value agw(t1, t2) being calculated for the at least one selected pair of expressions, the method comprising calculating the similarity weight value agw(t1, t2) on the basis of a similarity measure occ_con(t1, t2) which takes into account both the total frequency of the common occurrence of the two expressions t1 and t2 of the pair of expressions within the same text segment in a quantity of several text segments which are selectable or are selected from the collection of text documents and the total number of different context expressions in this quantity of text segments, a context expression being an expression which occurs in this quantity of text segments in at least one text segment together with the expression t1 and in at least one text segment together with the expression t2 and which corresponds neither to t1 nor t2.

A method for automatic, computer-based construction of a semantic network for integration of different types of text document data banks by calculation of similarity weight values for pairs of expressions, a similarity weight value quantifying the similarity of the two expressions of one pair of expressions, a collection of text documents which comprises at least one text document being stored in digital form, a quantity of candidate expressions ti which comprises several expressions being stored, each expression ti occurring in at least one of the text documents of the collection, and at least one pair of candidate expressions t1 and t2 being selected from the quantity of candidate expressions and a similarity weight value agw(t1, t2) being calculated for the at least one selected pair of expressions, the method comprising calculating the similarity weight value agw(t1, t2) on the basis of a similarity measure occ_con(t1, t2) which takes into account both the total frequency of the common occurrence of the two expressions t1 and t2 of the pair of expressions within the same text segment in a quantity of several text segments which are selectable or are selected from the collection of text documents and the total number of different context expressions in this quantity of text segments, a context expression being an expression which occurs in this quantity of text segments in at least one text segment together with the expression t1 and in at least one text segment together with the expression t2 and which corresponds neither to t1 nor t2.

A method for at least one of automatic, computer-based construction of a short description for a subject area and automatic, computer-based construction of a summary of contents for a subject area by calculation of similarity weight values for pairs of expressions, a similarity weight value quantifying the similarity of the two expressions of one pair of expressions, a collection of text documents which comprises at least one text document being stored in digital form, a quantity of candidate expressions ti which comprises several expressions being stored, each expression ti occurring in at least one of the text documents of the collection, and at least one pair of candidate expressions t1 and t2 being selected from the quantity of candidate expressions and a similarity weight value agw(t1, t2) being calculated for the at least one selected pair of expressions, the method comprising calculating the similarity weight value agw(t1, t2) on the basis of a similarity measure occ_con(t1, t2) which takes into account both the total frequency of the common occurrence of the two expressions t1 and t2 of the pair of expressions within the same text segment in a quantity of several text segments which are selectable or are selected from the collection of text documents and the total number of different context expressions in this quantity of text segments, a context expression being an expression which occurs in this quantity of text segments in at least one text segment together with the expression t1 and in at least one text segment together with the expression t2 and which corresponds neither to t1 nor t2.

A method for the automated construction of at least one of integration indices and search indices by calculation of similarity weight values for pairs of expressions, a similarity weight value quantifying the similarity of the two expressions of one pair of expressions, a collection of text documents which comprises at least one text document being stored in digital form, a quantity of candidate expressions ti which comprises several expressions being stored, each expression ti occurring in at least one of the text documents of the collection, and at least one pair of candidate expressions t1 and t2 being selected from the quantity of candidate expressions and a similarity weight value agw(t1, t2) being calculated for the at least one selected pair of expressions, the method comprising calculating the similarity weight value agw(t1, t2) on the basis of a similarity measure occ_con(t1, t2) which takes into account both the total frequency of the common occurrence of the two expressions t1 and t2 of the pair of expressions within the same text segment in a quantity of several text segments which are selectable or are selected from the collection of text documents and the total number of different context expressions in this quantity of text segments, a context expression being an expression which occurs in this quantity of text segments in at least one text segment together with the expression t1 and in at least one text segment together with the expression t2 and which corresponds neither to t1 nor t2.