US 8,019,760 B2Granted

Clustering system and method

AssigneeVivisimo, Inc.

InventorsAndre dos Santos Lessa, Christopher Palmer, Jerome Pesenti, Raul Valdes-Perez

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Abstract

An increase in information available to a user of computing technologies has a tendency to increase the number of topics that are similarly related. Given the large amount of information that is now available, it is increasingly likely that a first set of search results generated in response to an initial search query will contain information that is not of interest to the user. What is needed in the art is a technique to enable a search query to be conducted by taking advantage of linguistic feedback. Furthermore, what is needed is a technique to enable the presentation of search results to be refined in a manner based on what is not of interest to a user, either intrinsically or because the user has already seen and evaluated certain information and next wants to see more or different information.

Claims11

Dependent claims

A computer implemented method, comprising:

storing search results at a server based on a search engine query, wherein said search results comprise a plurality of items;
generating at the server a first set of clusters responsive to the search engine query, wherein each of said items is associated with at least one cluster in said first set of clusters;
sending the first set of clusters to a terminal configured to display the first set of clusters;
receiving at the server user input consisting of an indication to recluster the search results;
generating at the server a second set of clusters, wherein said second set of clusters excludes one or more clusters from said first set of clusters, and wherein each of said items is associated with at least one cluster in said second set of clusters;
and
sending the second set of clusters to the terminal configured to display the second set of clusters,
wherein each cluster is defined by a cluster title, and wherein generating at the server a second set of clusters comprises excluding from the second set of clusters one or more cluster titles used in said first set of clusters, excluding the literal phraseology of at least one cluster title in the first set of clusters from the second set of clusters, and excluding a linguistic equivalence class corresponding to at least one cluster title in the first set of clusters from the second set of clusters, and
wherein generating the second set of clusters comprises excluding each displayed cluster of the first set of clusters from the second set of clusters.

6 more elements

An apparatus comprising:

a processor;
and
memory storing computer executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, perform a method of clustering, comprising:
storing search results based on a search query, wherein said search results comprise a plurality of items;
generating a first set of clusters responsive to the search query, wherein each of said items is associated with at least one cluster in said first set of clusters;
sending the first set of clusters to a terminal configured to display the first set of clusters;
receiving user input consisting of an indication to recluster the search results;
generating a second set of clusters, wherein said second set of clusters excludes one or more clusters from said first set of clusters, and wherein each of said items is associated with at least one cluster in said second set of clusters;
and
sending the second set of clusters to the terminal configured to display the second set of clusters,
wherein each cluster is defined by a cluster title, and wherein generating at the server a second set of clusters comprises excluding from the second set of clusters one or more cluster titles used in said first set of clusters, excluding the literal phraseology of at least one cluster title in the first set of clusters from the second set of clusters, and excluding a linguistic equivalence class corresponding to at least one cluster title in the first set of clusters from the second set of clusters, and
wherein generating the second set of clusters comprises excluding each displayed cluster of the first set of clusters from the second set of clusters.

9 more elements

A data processing system comprising:

a processor;
and
memory storing computer executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, perform a clustering method comprising:
receiving search results, wherein said search results comprise a plurality of items;
receiving a first set of clusters generated by a server, wherein each of said items is associated with at least one cluster in said first set of clusters;
displaying the first set of clusters to a user;
sending to the server user input consisting of an indication to recluster the search results;
receiving a second set of clusters generated by the server, wherein said second set of clusters excludes one or more clusters from said first set of clusters, and wherein each of said items is associated with at least one cluster in said second set of clusters;
and
displaying the second set of clusters to the user,
wherein each cluster is defined by a cluster title, and wherein generating at the server a second set of clusters comprises excluding from the second set of clusters one or more cluster titles used in said first set of clusters, excluding the literal phraseology of at least one cluster title in the first set of clusters from the second set of clusters, and excluding a linguistic equivalence class corresponding to at least one cluster title in the first set of clusters from the second set of clusters, and
wherein generating the second set of clusters comprises excluding each displayed cluster of the first set of clusters from the second set of clusters.

9 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.