US 5,619,709 A · System and method of context vector generation and retrieval

Abstract

A system and method for generating context vectors for use in storage and retrieval of documents and other information items. Context vectors represent conceptual relationships among information items by quantitative means. A neural network operates on a training corpus of records to develop relationship-based context vectors based on word proximity and co-importance using a technique of "windowed co-occurrence". Relationships among context vectors are deterministic, so that a context vector set has one logical solution, although it may have a plurality of physical solutions. No human knowledge, thesaurus, synonym list, knowledge base, or conceptual hierarchy, is required. Summary vectors of records may be clustered to reduce searching time, by forming a tree of clustered nodes. Once the context vectors are determined, records may be retrieved using a query interface that allows a user to specify content terms, Boolean terms, and/or document feedback. The present invention further facilitates visualization of textual information by translating context vectors into visual and graphical representations. Thus, a user can explore visual representations of meaning, and can apply human visual pattern recognition skills to document searches.

Claims39

Dependent claims

In a computer having a processor and storage, a computer-implemented process of generating a set of summary vectors in a relative vector space such that for any subset of summary vectors associated with a subset of records there is a single logical relative orientation of the summary vectors that defines the relative meaning of the records, and a plurality of absolute orientations of the summary records, comprising the steps of:

(a) providing a training set of records for processing by the processor, each record containing a plurality of information elements;
(b) assigning to selected information elements in each record an initial context vector consisting solely of a plurality of randomly generated component data values;
(c) for selected information elements in each record, modifying the initial context vector of the selected information element by a function of the context vectors of information elements within a selected proximity to the selected information element and a proximity constraint that varies a magnitude of the modification to the initial context vector;
(d) for each record, determining a summary vector by combining the modified context vectors of the information elements of the record according to program instructions in the storage and executed on the processor;
and
(e) storing the determined summary vectors in the computer storage.

3 more elements

A system for generating a set of summary vectors, comprising:

a storage device containing a training set of records, each record containing a plurality of information elements;
an initial context vector generator, coupled to the storage device, for assigning to selected information elements in each record an initial context vector comprising solely a plurality of randomly generated component data values;
an iterative training device, coupled to the storage device, for modifying the initial context vector of the selected information elements by a function of the context vectors of information elements within a selected proximity to the selected information element and a proximity constraint that varies a magnitude of the modification to the initial context vector;
a vector combiner, coupled to the storage device, for combining the context vectors of the information elements of each record to determine a summary vector for the record and storing the determined summary vectors in the storage device.

1 more element

A computer-implemented process of generating a dictionary of information elements each associated with a context vector for a database of records, each record containing at least one information element, each information element having a determinate proximity to other information elements, comprising the steps of:

(a) selecting a plurality of information elements for including in the dictionary;
(b) assigning to the selected information elements an initial context vector consisting solely of a plurality of randomly generated component data values;
(c) for each selected information element being a target information element, iteratively modifying its context vector by the context vectors of neighbor information elements as a function of the proximity of the neighbor information elements to the target information element, the modified context vectors of the selected information elements forming the dictionary of context vectors.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

System and method of context vector generation and retrieval

Life of this patent

System and method of context vector generation and retrieval

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims39