US 8,805,838 B1Granted

Systems and methods for automatic item classification

AssigneeAmazon Technologies, Inc.

InventorsCyrus Khoshnevisan, Abhishek Kansal, Lam D. Nguyen, Michael Paul Touloumtzis

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Abstract

An item categorization service is described that automatically categorizes items of interest to a user. The user may possess an item that they wish to offer for sale using a network-based service. The user may submit item information to the item categorization service to categorize the item of interest. Upon receipt, the categorization service may assess the relevance of the item information to hierarchically organized categories maintained by the network-based service. Categories having the highest relevance may be identified as first category candidates. The deepest common ancestor of the first category candidates may be identified the first category. One or more categories, representing sub-categories of the first category, may be identified and subjected to relevance assessment. Those sub-categories having the highest relevance may be identified as second category candidates. The deepest common ancestor of the second category candidates may be identified as a second category for the item of interest.

Claims28

Dependent claims

A system for categorizing items, the system comprising:

a network-based service configured to:
receive a request to categorize an item of interest, the request including item information regarding the item of interest;
and
transmit the request to an item categorization service;
a data store configured to store categories for items, wherein at least a portion of the categories are hierarchically organized with respect to one another;
and
the item categorization service in communication with the data store and the network-based service, the item categorization service configured to:
assign a first category to the item of interest by:
determining a plurality of first category candidates based at least in part upon an assessment of the relevance of the item information with one or more first categories stored by the data store;
and
assigning, as the first category for the item of interest, a first common ancestor of the hierarchically organized first category candidates, the first common ancestor comprising a category that is hierarchically superior to any remaining first category candidates;
and
assign a second category to the item of interest by:
determining a plurality of second category candidates based at least in part upon an assessment of the relevance of the item information with one or more second categories stored by the data store;
and
assigning, as the second category for the item of interest, a second common ancestor of the hierarchically organized second category candidates, the second common ancestor comprising a category that is hierarchically superior to any remaining second category candidates.

13 more elements

A system for categorizing items, the system comprising:

a data store that stores a plurality of hierarchically organized categories for items, each of the hierarchically organized categories represented by at least one category attribute and corresponding category attribute value;
and
an item categorization service in communication with the data store, the item categorization service configured to:
receive item information for an item of interest, the item information comprising at least one item attribute and a corresponding item attribute value for the item of interest;
assign a first category for the item of interest from first categories of the hierarchically organized categories stored by the data store;
identify a category attribute of the assigned first category;
obtain at least one second category that comprises the identified category attribute and corresponding category attribute value;
determine one or more second category candidates based at least in part upon an assessment of the relevance of the item information with the at least one second category;
and
assign one of the second category candidates as a second category for the item of interest based at least in part upon the hierarchical positions of the one or more second category candidates with respect to one another such that at least one of the remaining second category candidates is a sub-category of the second category.

7 more elements

A computer-implemented method for categorizing items, the method comprising:

under control of one or more configured computer systems:
receiving item information for an item of interest, the item information comprising one or more item attributes and respective item attribute values for the item of interest;
assigning a primary category describing an item of interest, the primary category selected from a first search index comprising one or more hierarchically organized first categories having first attributes and respective first attribute values;
identifying a category attribute describing the assigned primary category;
obtaining a second search index comprising one or more hierarchically organized second categories, wherein each of the second categories includes the identified category attribute of the primary category;
determining one or more secondary category candidates based at least in part upon an assessment of the relevance of the item information with each of the one or more hierarchically organized second categories;
and
assigning one of the second category candidates as a secondary category describing the item of interest based at least in part upon the hierarchical positions of the secondary category candidates with respect to one another such that at least one of the remaining second category candidates is a sub-category of the second category.

5 more elements

A computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon, wherein the instructions, when executed by a computing apparatus, cause the computing apparatus to:

receive item information for an item of interest, the item information comprising one or more item attributes and corresponding item attribute values for the item of interest;
assign a first category for the item of interest from hierarchically organized first categories stored by a data store;
identify a category attribute of the assigned first category;
obtain one or more hierarchically organized second categories that comprise the identified category attribute and a corresponding category attribute value;
determine one or more second category candidates based at least in part upon an assessment of the relevance of the item information with each of the second categories;
and
assign one of the second category candidates a second category for the item of interest based at least in part upon the hierarchical positions of the second category candidates with respect to one another such that at least one of the remaining second category candidates is a sub-category of the second category.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.