JP2016197438A - Method and device for providing information of interest to one or more users - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method for providing information selected by using a first concept and a second concept semantically relating to the first concept to a user.SOLUTION: The method includes steps of: receiving user context information related to a user; identifying or generating a first concept representing a part of the user context information in a semantic network; regarding the semantic network which includes a first node representing a first concept after performing the step of identification or generation, synthesizing a second concept semantically relating to the first concept with the first concept; and providing information to the user. The synthesis step is based on the first concept and at least another concept in the semantic network, and includes a step of extending the semantic network with a second node representing the second concept.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

This application is organized by the same inventor and / or the same applicant on the basis of the concepts disclosed in a number of previous applications. Refer to the following references to gain insight: US Provisional Application No. 13 / 162,069, filed June 16, 2011, entitled “Methods and Apparatus for Searching of Content Using Semantic Synthesis”. (Attorney Docket No. P0913.70013US01); US Patent Provisional, entitled “Method System, and Computer Program for User-Driven Dynamic Generation of Semantic Networks and Media Synthesis,” filed on February 2, 2010 Application 12 / 671,846 (Attorney Docket No. P0913.70007 US00); and “Method, System, filed May 1, 2009” and International Patent Application PCT / CA2009 / 000567 entitled “Computer Program for User-Driven Dynamic Generation of Semantic Networks and Media Synthesis”.

  The teachings disclosed herein relate to the field of information retrieval. More specifically, the teachings disclosed herein provide a knowledge representation for identifying and providing information of interest to a user from a large set of digital content in a digital information system environment. And the introduction of systems and methods for using information associated with the user (s) with one or more data sets represented as.

  Information technology is often used to provide users with various types of information such as text, audio, video, and any suitable other type of information. In some cases, information is provided to the user in response to actions taken by the user. For example, information is provided to a user in response to a search query entered by the user or in response to a user subscribed to content such as an email alert (s) or an electronic newsletter (s). Can do. In other cases, the information is provided or “distributed” to the user without the user specifically requesting such information. For example, the user may occasionally receive advertisements or solicitations.

  There are a myriad of content that can be provided to users via information technology. In fact, the vast amount of information available via the Internet, World Wide Web (WWW) and any other suitable information provisioning source, and the information available is independently owned and operated. Because it is distributed across a vast number of networks and servers, finding information of interest to the user presents a challenge. Similar challenges exist when information of interest is distributed across a large private network.

  Search engines have been developed to assist users in finding desired content on the Internet. The search engine receives a search query (eg, in the form of a set of keywords) from a user indicating the content that the user desires, and the information determined by the search engine in relation to the user's search query and / or to this information A computer program that returns a hyperlink.

  Search engines typically use a computer program called a “web crawler” that searches the WWW in an automated manner (eg, following every hyperlink that encounters each web page you browse). Serves to search a large number of WWW web pages and / or other content. The retrieved web page and / or content is analyzed and information about the web page or content is stored as an index. When a user or application issues a search query to a search engine, the search engine uses this index to identify the web page and / or content that it finds best matches the user's search query, and best Returns a list of matching web pages and / or content results. In most cases, this list is in the form of one or more web pages that include a set of hyperlinks to web pages and / or content that are determined to best match the user's search query.

  The vast amount of content accessible through digital information systems presents a number of information retrieval problems. One challenge is how much information in a large set of content interests the user, so that such information is presented to these users without overwhelming them with irrelevant information. That's all about it. A related problem is how to find out what information is interesting to users searching for information on large sets of content by using terms that rarely appear in the set of content being searched. It is whether to judge to. Accordingly, the present invention recognizes that there is a need for a technique for identifying information that interests a user in a large set of content and presenting such content to the user. These needs are addressed herein along with new methods and applications.

Means to be Solved by the Invention

  In some embodiments, a computer-implemented method for providing information selected from a large set of digital content to at least one user is disclosed. The method includes receiving user context information associated with at least one user; and at least a portion of the user context information within a semantic network using at least one processor executing stored program instructions. Including or including a second concept by combining the second concept based on the first concept and at least one other concept in the semantic network; Obtaining at least one concept that is semantically related to at least a portion of the first concept; providing information to at least one user, the information comprising: At least one obtained semantically related to the first concept Wherein the first concept in the semantic network is selected by a data structure that stores data associated with a node in the semantic network. expressed.

  In some embodiments, a system for providing information selected from a large set of digital content to at least one user is disclosed. The system includes at least one processor configured to perform the following method, the method comprising: receiving user context information associated with at least one user; and a user within a semantic network Identifying or generating a first concept representing at least a portion of the context information; synthesizing a second concept based on the first concept and at least one other concept in the semantic network; Obtaining at least one concept that includes two concepts and is semantically related to at least a portion of the first concept; providing information to at least one user, the information comprising: , At least one acquired in semantic relation to the first concept and the first concept Wherein the first concept in the semantic network is represented by a data structure that stores data associated with the nodes in the semantic network. Is done.

  In some embodiments, at least one non-transitory computer readable storage medium is disclosed. When the at least one non-transitory computer readable storage medium is executed by at least one processor, the at least one processor transmits information selected from a large set of digital content to at least one user. Stores processor-executable instructions, such as executing a method for providing. The method includes receiving user context information associated with at least one user; identifying or generating a first concept representing at least a portion of the user context information in a semantic network; Synthesizing the second concept based on the concept and at least one other concept in the semantic network so as to include the second concept and to be semantically related to at least a portion of the first concept Obtaining at least one concept; providing information to at least one user, wherein the information is at least one obtained in semantic relation to the first concept and the first concept. Selected by using one concept; providing, where the semantics · First concept in the network is represented by a data structure that stores data associated with a node in the semantic network.

  In some embodiments, synthesizing the second concept is: identifying at least one other concept in the semantic network based at least in part on the structure of the semantic network; Synthesizing a second concept from the concept and at least one other concept.

  In some embodiments, synthesizing the second concept comprises an additive operation based on at least one of an attribute co-definition technique, a relative reasoning technique, a sibling analogy technique, and / or an attribute commonality technique. Including using.

  In some embodiments, synthesizing the second concept includes using a replace operation, where the replace operation includes using a search operation and / or an add operation.

  In some embodiments, obtaining at least one concept includes: obtaining a plurality of concepts that are semantically related to the first concept; and calculating a score for one or more concepts within the plurality of concepts. Calculating a score for a particular concept is an indicator of the semantic relevance of the particular concept to the first concept; based on the score computed for the one or more concepts Selecting at least one concept.

  In some embodiments, calculating a score for a concept uses at least one related measure of generation certainty, concept productivity, jakar, statistical coherence, and / or cosine similarity. including.

  In some embodiments, a computer-implemented method for providing information selected from a large set of digital content to at least one user by using user-specific knowledge representations is disclosed. The implementation method includes: receiving user context information associated with at least one user; and using at least one processor executing stored program instructions to at least represent the information associated with the user. Generating or identifying a first concept representing at least a portion of user context information within the knowledge representation of the user; obtaining at least one concept semantically related to the first concept within the user-specific knowledge representation Providing information to at least one user, the information using a first concept and at least one concept obtained semantically related to the first concept Providing, selected by, wherein user-specific knowledge The concept of the present is represented by a data structure that stores data associated with the node in the user-specific knowledge representation.

  In some embodiments, a system for providing information selected from a large set of digital content to at least one user using a user-specific knowledge representation is disclosed. The system includes: at least one processor configured to perform the following method, the method comprising: receiving user context information associated with at least one user; and storing stored program instructions. Identifying or generating a first concept representing at least a portion of user context information within a user-specific knowledge representation representing at least information associated with the user using at least one processor executing; Obtaining at least one concept semantically related to the first concept within a unique knowledge representation; providing information to at least one user, the information comprising the first concept and By using at least one concept obtained semantically related to the first concept It is selected, and to provide; wherein, where the concept of the user-specific knowledge representation is represented by a data structure that stores data associated with the node in the user-specific knowledge representation.

  In some embodiments, at least one non-transitory computer readable storage medium is disclosed. The at least one non-transitory computer readable storage medium is selected from a large set of digital content using a user-specific knowledge representation when executed by the at least one processor. Processor executable instructions are stored that cause a method to be provided to the at least one user. The method includes: receiving user context information associated with at least one user; and using at least one processor executing stored program instructions to at least represent the information associated with the user Identifying or generating a first concept representing at least part of the user context information within the knowledge representation of the user; obtaining at least one concept semantically related to the first concept within the user-specific knowledge representation Providing information to at least one user, the information using the first concept and at least one concept obtained in semantic relation to the first concept A concept in the user-specific knowledge representation is selected by the user Data associated with nodes in the knowledge representation of the chromatic represented by a data structure that stores.

  In some embodiments, the method determines whether there is a stored user-specific knowledge representation associated with the user; and determined that a stored user-specific knowledge representation exists. The stored user-specific knowledge representation is used as the user-specific knowledge representation; and if a stored user-specific knowledge representation is determined not to exist, a new user-specific knowledge representation is generated. And using the new user-specific knowledge representation as a user-specific knowledge representation.

  In some embodiments, the at least one concept includes the second concept, and obtaining the at least one concept is based on the second concept based at least in part on the structure of the user-specific knowledge representation. Including synthesizing.

  In some embodiments, synthesizing the second concept comprises an additive operation based on at least one of an attribute co-definition technique, a relative reasoning technique, a sibling analogy technique, and / or an attribute commonality technique. Including using.

  In some embodiments, synthesizing the second concept includes using a replace operation, and the replace operation includes using a search operation and / or an add operation.

  In some embodiments, obtaining at least one concept includes: obtaining a plurality of concepts that are semantically related to the first concept; and calculating a score for one or more concepts within the plurality of concepts. Calculating a score for a particular concept is an indicator of the semantic relevance of the particular concept to the first concept; based on the score computed for the one or more concepts Selecting at least one concept.

  In some embodiments, calculating a score for a concept uses at least one related measure of generation certainty, concept productivity, jakar, statistical coherence, and / or cosine similarity. including.

  In some embodiments, based on a reference set of content, a reference semantic network that represents knowledge associated with the reference set of content, and a target semantic network that represents knowledge associated with the target set of content A computer-implemented method for searching for content in a target set of content is disclosed. The method includes: receiving a user-specified search query; and storing at least one concept that is semantically related to the user-specified search query by using a target semantic network and a reference semantic network. Acquiring with at least one processor executing the program instructions; a second search by expanding the first search query with one or more terms associated with the acquired at least one concept Creating a query; using a second search query to provide content associated with search results obtained based at least in part on searching a target set of content to at least one user And wherein a semaphore Any concept in ticks network is represented by a data structure that stores data associated with a node in the semantic network.

  In some embodiments, based on a reference set of content, a reference semantic network that represents knowledge associated with the reference set of content, and a target semantic network that represents knowledge associated with the target set of content A system for searching for content in a target set of content is disclosed. The system includes: at least one processor configured to perform the following method, the method comprising: receiving a user-specified search query; using a target semantic network and a reference semantic network Thereby obtaining at least one concept semantically related to a user-specified search query using at least one processor executing stored program instructions; and being associated with the obtained at least one concept Creating a second search query by extending the first search query with one or more terms; and using the second search query to search a target set of content at least in part Associated with search results retrieved based on And providing at least one user the Ntsu; wherein wherein any concept of the semantic network is represented by a data structure that stores data associated with a node in the semantic network.

  In some embodiments, at least one non-transitory computer readable storage medium is disclosed. The at least one non-transitory computer readable storage medium, when executed by at least one processor, causes the at least one processor to represent a reference set of content and knowledge associated with the reference set of content. Stores processor-executable instructions that cause a method to search for content in the target set of content based on the semantic network and a target semantic network that represents knowledge associated with the target set of content . The method includes: storing a user-specified search query; and storing at least one concept that is semantically related to the user-specified search query by using a target semantic network and a reference semantic network. A second search by expanding the first search query with one or more terms associated with the acquired at least one concept; Creating a query; using a second search query to provide content associated with search results obtained based at least in part on searching a target set of content to at least one user Where the semantic net Any concept of the work is represented by a data structure that stores data associated with a node in the semantic network.

  In some embodiments, obtaining at least one concept that is semantically related to the first search query is: constructing a merged semantic network based on the reference semantic network and the target semantic network Identifying or generating a first concept representing a user-specified search query in the merged semantic network; and the first concept and at least one other concept in the merged semantic network Synthesizing a second concept based on the method to obtain at least one concept that includes the second concept and that is semantically related to at least a portion of the first concept.

  In some embodiments, building a merged semantic network merges the reference semantic network and the target semantics around concepts that are common to the reference and target semantic networks. Including doing.

  In some embodiments, building the merged semantic network includes pruning one or more concepts from the reference semantic network and / or the target semantic network prior to merging.

  In some embodiments, synthesizing the second concept comprises an additive operation based on at least one of an attribute co-definition technique, a relative reasoning technique, a sibling analogy technique, and / or an attribute commonality technique. Including using.

  In some embodiments, synthesizing the second concept includes using a replace operation, and the replace operation includes using a search operation and / or an add operation.

  In some embodiments, obtaining at least one concept includes: obtaining a plurality of concepts that are semantically related to the first concept; and calculating a score for one or more concepts within the plurality of concepts. Calculating a score for a particular concept is an indicator of the semantic relevance of the particular concept to the first concept; based on the score computed for the one or more concepts Selecting at least one concept.

  In some embodiments, calculating a score for a concept uses at least one related measure of generation certainty, concept productivity, jakar, statistical coherence, and / or cosine similarity. including.

4 is a flowchart of an exemplary process for providing a user with selected information from a large set of digital content, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an exemplary client / server architecture as used to implement some embodiments of the present disclosure. 4 is a flowchart of an exemplary process for identifying or generating an active concept representing user context information in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. FIG. 6 is an illustration of generating an active concept representing user context information according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. FIG. 6 is an illustration of generating an active concept representing user context information according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. FIG. 6 is an illustration of generating an active concept representing user context information according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. FIG. 6 illustrates various approaches for obtaining a concept related to an active concept representing user context information in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention. FIG. 6 illustrates various approaches for obtaining a concept related to an active concept representing user context information in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention. FIG. 6 illustrates various approaches for obtaining a concept related to an active concept representing user context information in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention. FIG. 6 illustrates various approaches for obtaining a concept related to an active concept representing user context information in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention. FIG. 6 illustrates various approaches for obtaining a concept related to an active concept representing user context information in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention. FIG. 6 illustrates various approaches for obtaining a concept related to an active concept representing user context information in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention. FIG. 6 illustrates various approaches for obtaining a concept related to an active concept representing user context information in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention. FIG. 6 illustrates various approaches for obtaining a concept related to an active concept representing user context information in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention. FIG. 6 illustrates a technique for scoring concepts related to active concepts according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. FIG. 6 illustrates a technique for scoring concepts related to active concepts according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. 4 is a flowchart of an exemplary process for searching for content in a target set of content based on a reference set of content based on a plurality of knowledge representations, in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary example of forming a merged knowledge representation by using multiple knowledge representations according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary example of forming a merged knowledge representation by using multiple knowledge representations according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary example of forming a merged knowledge representation by using multiple knowledge representations according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. FIG. 4 illustrates another exemplary example of providing information to a user based on multiple knowledge representations according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. FIG. 4 illustrates another exemplary example of providing information to a user based on multiple knowledge representations according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a computing device in which some embodiments of the present disclosure are implemented.

The foregoing “Brief Description of the Drawings” is a non-limiting summary of the invention as defined by the appended claims.
The accompanying drawings are not intended to be drawn to scale. Similar elements are actually identified by the same or similar reference signs. For clarity, not all components are necessarily labeled in all drawings.

  As mentioned above, the availability of large amounts of information from various information provisioning sources, such as the Internet, determines what information is of interest to the user and what information should be presented to the user. It makes it difficult to decide. For example, what information (eg news, advertisements, updates about others) after the user navigates to a website without explicitly identifying what information the user is interested in Etc.) may be difficult to determine to present to the user on a website (eg, news website, web portal, social network website, etc.).

  Even in an online search or other scenario that provides an explicit indicator of what information a user might be interested in (eg, a search query), such an indicator May not be sufficient to accurately identify the content to be presented to the user from a large set of content that can be presented to the user. Most traditional search engines include literal terms in the user's search query and literal terms in the content indexed by search engines that determine which part of the content is relevant to the user's query. Pattern matching was simply performed between the two. Thus, if the term of the user's search query does not match the literal term in the indexed content, the user may not be provided with the information the user is looking for. In addition, when a user inputs a search query including a term whose meaning is ambiguous, the user may be provided with information completely unrelated to the meaning of the term intended by the user. In this way, the user may be overwhelmed by information irrelevant to the user's interest.

  In these and other settings, semantic processing techniques can be used to identify information likely to be of interest to the user from a large set of digital content. Specifically, applying semantic processing techniques to information associated with a user can help identify information that the user may be interested in. As described in more detail below, information associated with a user may include information about the user (eg, demographic information, geospatial information, user browsing history, etc.) and / or any information provided by the user ( For example, a search query provided by the user, a plurality of queries, a user-built online profile, etc.), but is not limited thereto.

  Aspects of semantic processing techniques relate to the construction and use of knowledge representations to support machine-based storage, knowledge management, and inference systems. Conventional methods and systems exist to utilize knowledge representations (KRs) built according to various knowledge representation models, such as knowledge classification, thesauri, facet classification, etc. Can be realized as a tangible data structure including a structured and controlled vocabulary, a formal specification such as a semantic network or ontology, and an unstructured form such as a document based on a natural language.

  Although the claimed invention is not limited to a specific knowledge representation, the preferred form is a formal specification type referred to as a semantic network. Semantic networks are described in many sources of information, in particular, a US patent titled “Method, System, And Computer Program For User-Driven Dynamic Generation Of Semantic Networks And Media Synthesis” by Peter Sweeney et al. The provisional application 12 / 671,846 is a notable document, which is incorporated herein by reference.

  Semantic networks have wide utility as a kind of knowledge representation. As machine-readable data, these semantic networks can support a number of advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, software automation and software agents, expert systems, and knowledge management. In addition, these semantic networks can be converted to various types of media (ie, other KRs). In other words, the synthesis or formation of the semantic network can support a wide range of media synthesis to extract additional values from the semantic network.

  In some embodiments, a semantic network can be represented as a data structure that embodies a directed graph that includes vertices or nodes that represent concepts and edges that represent semantic relationships between the concepts. A data structure that embodies a semantic network can be encoded (ie, instantiated) into a non-transitory, tangible computer-readable storage medium. Thus, a semantic network can be considered to include one or more concepts. Each such concept can be represented by a data structure that stores arbitrary data associated with one or more nodes in the semantic network representing the concept. An edge of a directed graph can represent any of the different types of relationships between concepts associated with the two nodes to which this edge is connected. For example, the relationship represented by the edge of the semantic network is a “defined-by” relationship or a “is-a” relationship. In the drawings showing exemplary semantic networks (eg, FIGS. 5A-5H, FIGS. 8A-8C, etc.), the “defined by” relationship is indicated by an edge terminating in a filled circle, “ The “is” relationship is indicated by an edge terminating in an arrow. For example, reference numeral 808 identifies a relationship “defined by” and reference numeral 804 identifies a relationship “is”.

  Concepts can be structurally defined in terms of the composite level of abstraction through (their) relationships with other entities, and in terms of other more basic KR entities such as keywords and morphemes. Such a structure can be referred to as a concept definition. Collectively, more basic knowledge representation entities such as keywords and morphemes containing concepts are referred to as concept attributes.

  As described in US Provisional Application No. 12 / 671,846, the concept is based on a composite level of abstraction through relationships with other entities and others such as keywords and morphemes. Can be structurally defined in terms of a more basic knowledge representation entity. Such a structure can be referred to as a “conceptual rule”.

  Information associated with a user can be used with at least one knowledge representation, such as a semantic network, to infer what information is of interest to the user. Any suitable knowledge representation can be used. For example, a semantic network that represents knowledge associated with content about which subsets are of interest to the user can be used. Such a KR can be constructed from any of a number of data sources including any suitable information provisioning source and vocabulary.

  Also, information associated with the user can be used in conjunction with one or more knowledge representations to identify concepts that are semantically related to the information associated with the user. The identified concepts can then be used to determine what information is of interest to the user in a wide range of applications. For example, finding a concept that is semantically related to a term in a user's search query is useful in determining the semantic meaning of the query and what information the user is looking for. The query can then be derived (derived) from the identified concept and augmented (expanded) with keywords, and improved search results can be returned to the user. As another example, the concept identified as being semantically related to information contained in a user's online profile is what information (e.g., advertisements, news, etc.) when the user is on a line. ) May be useful in determining whether to present to the user.

  Accordingly, in some embodiments, a method for identifying a concept that is semantically related to information associated with a user is disclosed. A concept representing at least a portion of information associated with a user, a concept referred to as an “active concept” is identified or synthesized (ie, generated) and is semantically related to this active concept The above concept can be acquired. In some examples, concepts that are semantically related to the active concept can be identified in the semantic network, while in other examples, the concepts that are related to the active concept are in the active concept and the semantic network. It can be synthesized using at least one other concept. Concepts that are semantically related to active concepts can be identified and / or synthesized based at least in part on the structure of the semantic network.

  In some embodiments, after a concept that is semantically related to the active concept is acquired, the acquired concept is scored. The score can be calculated in any of a number of ways, for example, based at least in part on the structure of the semantic network (the data structure of the graph that embodies it). The score can then be used to select a subset of concepts that are semantically related to the active concept. The selected concept can then be used to provide the user with information that is of interest to the user.

  In some embodiments, information associated with one or more users can be used to construct user-specific knowledge representations corresponding to the user (s). This user-specific knowledge representation can be constructed from information associated with the user (s) and at least one knowledge representation such as a semantic network. As a result, the user-specific knowledge representation can encode information related to the user (s). Any suitable knowledge representation includes, but is not limited to, a knowledge representation that represents knowledge associated with the content about which subset (s) the user (s) are interested in. The resulting user-specific knowledge representation can be used to identify concepts related to information that may be of interest to the user (s).

  Advantageously, in some embodiments, user-specific knowledge representations are stored and can be used multiple times. This allows semantic processing for a user to take advantage of semantic processing previously performed for that user and / or one or more other users. For example, if a user-specific knowledge representation is generated based on information associated with one user of a group user (eg, an employee of company X), the same user-specific knowledge representation is the same It can be used to identify concepts that are semantically related to information associated with another user in the group (eg, another employee of Company X).

  As mentioned earlier, when users search for information, the terms used in those search queries often do not literally match the terms that appear in the content being searched, May express the same or similar concept in different terms. In such cases, the returned search results, if any, will contain lower quality results than are actually available. As a result, it is often difficult for a user to find all the information he needs, even when relevant content exists.

  An example of this situation is a set of specialized content that uses terms that appear infrequently in the set of content being searched (for example, accessed through a specific website or multiple websites, a specific network, a specific portal, etc. This may occur when a user searches for information in (possible content). For example, a user may search for information through a medical website within specialized content created by and intended for medical professionals and researchers. However, because website users may not be medically trained, their search queries may not use many terms commonly found in medical articles on related subjects. . Thus, if there are only a few terms in a search query provided by a user, they may appear in content accessible through the website, if any, but many potentially relevant items May be missed. Another example is when a user wants to retrieve customer support content information. The user is not technically savvy, but still needs to use certain technical terms to find content that would be useful to the user. Many other examples will be apparent to those skilled in the art.

  Some of the above-mentioned shortcomings of conventional search methods are that the second set of content to improve the quality of the search results returned to the user trying to search the first set of content, the “target” set. That is, it can be handled using a “reference” set. The first set of content can be any suitable set of content, for example, a specific website (eg, e-commerce website, corporate website, access to one or more databases) The content may be accessible via a website or the like that provides The second set of content, i.e. the reference set, can be any suitable set of content, e.g. any information repository (e.g. Wikipedia, WordNet, etc.), database, or content provisioning It may be content in the source. It should be appreciated that these are merely examples, but aspects of the invention are not so limited, and the content target set and content reference set may be any suitable set of content. Can do.

  As an example, in the example above, a reference domain containing information about a disease commonly known in the public sphere can access terms in a user's search query on a medical website via that website May be useful for associating with content terms. In fact, the reference set of content contains information that identifies “Orthomyxoviridae” as a family of influenza viruses, and the flu is commonly referred to as “flu”. If a user's search query, such as “Flu Virus”, can only refer to a viral disease using only the official classification of the relevant virus Can easily be associated with content accessible through a medical website. Simply put, a reference set of content is a type of “middle tier” or “conversion and interpretation media” to help convert terms that appear in a search query into terms that appear in the target set of content being searched. Can serve as

  Semantic processing techniques can be used to use content within a reference set of content to improve the quality of search results returned to users who want to search the target set of content. Thus, in some embodiments, a target knowledge representation can be used as well as a reference knowledge representation. The reference (target) knowledge representation may be any suitable type of knowledge representation, such as a semantic network, and may represent knowledge associated with the content in the reference (target) set of content. The reference (target) knowledge representation can be constructed in any suitable manner, for example, based at least in part on the content in the reference (target) set of content.

  In some embodiments, the reference knowledge representation and the target knowledge representation may be merged to form a merged knowledge representation, and one or more terms (and , Optionally, the terms that appear in the user context information associated with the user) are semantically related to the term (s) associated with the user's search query and the terms that optionally appear in the user context information associated with the user. Can be used to identify or synthesize one or more concepts within the merged knowledge representation. The acquired concept can then be used to augment the user's search query with terms associated with the acquired concept before performing a search. Accordingly, concepts obtained based at least in part on the reference knowledge representation can be used to improve the quality of search results returned in response to a user search query for content in a target set of content. .

  It should be understood that the various aspects of the invention described herein may be implemented in any of a number of ways and are not limited to a particular implementation technique. Although specific implementations are described below for purposes of illustration only, the aspects of the invention described herein are not limited to these exemplary implementations. Moreover, unless expressly appearing from a specific context, the various features and steps described herein can be combined in ways other than the specific embodiments shown, and other such Combinations are intended to be within the scope of this disclosure and contemplated as inventions.

  FIG. 1 shows a flowchart of an exemplary process 100 for providing a user with digital content selected from a large set of digital content based on a knowledge representation as used in some embodiments. Has been. The method of FIG. 1 begins at operation 102 where user context information associated with one or more users is obtained. As described in more detail below, the user context information may be any suitable information associated with the user (s) and / or any suitable information provided by the user (s). it can. The method for obtaining user context information is also described in more detail below.

  Process 100 then proceeds to operation 104 such that an active concept representing at least a portion of the user context information is identified in the knowledge representation. This knowledge representation can be any suitable knowledge representation, and in some embodiments can be a user-specific knowledge representation associated with the user (s). However, it should be appreciated that the knowledge representation is not limited to a user specific knowledge representation and may be other knowledge representations available to the process 100. In some embodiments, as part of operation 104, an active concept representing user context information may be generated for subsequent use in building a user-specific knowledge representation that includes the active concept.

  Process 100 proceeds to operation 106 such that one or more concepts that are semantically related to the active concept are obtained by using a knowledge representation that includes the active concept. (The relevant measurements of the example are described below.) The process 100 then proceeds to operation 108 so that one or more of the acquired concept (s) is selected. The concept (s) can be selected based at least in part on a score such that one or more of the concept (s) is assigned using the associated measurement. Process 100 then provides content to one or more users based at least in part on the active concept identified or generated in action 104 and the concept (s) selected in action 108. As such, proceed to operation 110. Such content can be selected from a large set of content using the active concept and the concept (s) selected in operation 108. Each of the operations of the process of FIG. 1 may be performed in any of a variety of ways, and some examples of how these operations can be implemented in various embodiments are described in more detail below. .

  Process 100 and any of its variations can be implemented using hardware, software, or any suitable combination thereof. When implemented in software, the software may execute on any suitable processor or collection of processors, whether stand-alone or networked. Software may be stored as processor-executable instructions and configuration parameters, and such software may be stored in one or more non-transitory, tangible computer-readable storage media.

  The software implementation process 100 can be organized in any suitable manner. For example, each software module can be organized as a software system that includes one or more software modules such that at least a portion of one or more operations of process 100 can be performed. However, in some embodiments, one or more software modules of such a software system may perform functions that are not related to the operation of process 100, although aspects of the invention are not limited thereto. Can do.

I. Obtaining User Context Information As described above, in operation 102 of process 100, user context information associated with one or more users can be obtained. User context information may include any information that may be used to identify what information the user (s) are looking for and / or what information they are interested in. Good. User context information also includes information that is used to develop a model of the user (s) that is then used to provide information to the user. In this way, user context information may include appropriate information related to user (s) collected from any available information source and / or any appropriate information provided directly by the user (s). It can include, but is not limited to these.

  In some embodiments, the information associated with the user can be any suitable information about the user. For example, information associated with the user may include demographic information associated with the user (eg, gender, age, education level, etc.). As another example, information related to a user may include details of the user's Internet browsing history. Such information may include a list of one or more websites that the user has viewed, the time of browsing, and / or the location (ie, geographical location) where such browsing has occurred. The browsing history of the user may further include related browsing information including, but not limited to, information searched by the user and a search result acquired by the user in response to such a search.

  As another example, information related to a user may include any information provided by the user via any user interface on the user's computing device or on one or more websites viewed by the user. it can. For example, information related to the user may include any information associated with the user on any website, such as a social network website, a job posting (publishing) website, a blog, a discussion thread, etc. Good. Such information includes a user profile on the website, information associated with multimedia (eg, images, videos, etc.) corresponding to the user profile, and other information entered by the user on the website. , But not limited to them. As yet another example, information related to users can be found in US Provisional Application No. 12 / 555,293, filed Sep. 8, 2009, entitled “Synthesizing Messaging Using Content Provided by Consumers”. Which is described and incorporated herein by reference.

  In some embodiments, information related to the user may include geospatial information. For example, geospatial information may include the current location of the user and / or the user's computing device (e.g., the user's home, the user's local library, the user's workplace, the location the user has traveled, and / or the user's Internet IP address). The geographical location of the user's device as determined by Geospatial information may include an association between information about the location of the user's computer device and the content that the user has searched for or viewed when the user's computer device was at or near that location. it can. In some embodiments, the information associated with the user can include temporal information. For example, the temporal information can include the time that the user has queried or viewed specific content on the computing device. The time can be specified in any appropriate scale such as year scale, season, month, week, day, hour, minute, second, etc.

  Additionally or alternatively, user context information associated with one or more users may include information provided by the user (s). Such information may be any suitable information that represents what information the user (s) are interested in. For example, the user context information includes one or more user search queries entered by a user into a search engine (eg, a search engine adapted to search a particular domain such as an Internet search engine, a corporate intranet, etc.). But you can. As another example, the user context information can include one or more user-specified indicators for the type of information that the user is interested in. The user can provide the indicator (s) in any of a number of ways. The user enters or speaks his / her preference indicator and selects one or more options provided by the website or application (eg, selecting an item from a drop-down menu and checking a check box). Highlight, or otherwise select a portion of the content that interests the user, either on the website or in the application and / or in any other suitable manner. For example, a user may update news related to a topic (s), advertisements related to one or more types of product (s), websites, newsletters, email digests, etc. One or more options on the website can be selected to indicate that you want to receive information about any updates.

  User context information may be obtained in any of various possible ways at operation 102. For example, in some embodiments, user context information may be provided from a user's client computer to one or more server computers that execute software code that performs the process 100. For example, as shown in FIG. 2, a user can operate a client computer 202 that executes an application program 204. The application program 204 can send user context information 206 (eg, a search query entered by the user into the application program 204) to a server computer 208, which is a computer executing the process 100. Accordingly, the server 208 can receive the user context information 206 from the application program 204 executed on the client 202.

  Application program 204 may be any of various types of application programs that can send information to server 208 and receive information from server 208, either directly or indirectly. For example, in some embodiments, application program 204 may be the Internet or a WWW browser, an instant messaging client, or any other suitable application.

  In the example of FIG. 2, the application program 204 is shown as sending user context information directly to the server 208. This is a simplified representation of how user context information is sent from the client 202 to the server 208, recognizing that user context information need not be sent directly from the client 202 to the server 208. I want to be. For example, in some embodiments, a user search query may be sent to the server 208 via a network. The network may be any suitable type of network, such as a LAN, WAN, the Internet, or a combination of networks.

  Also, receiving user context information from the user's client computer is such that the user context information can be obtained in any other suitable manner as part of operation 102 of process 100. It should be appreciated that the embodiments are not limited. For example, the user context information can be active from requesting and / or passively receiving from a source that includes user context information associated with one or more users or accessing this user context information. Can get.

II. Identification or Generation of Active Concept Representing User Context Information As described above, in operation 104 of process 100, the active concept representing at least a portion of user context information obtained during operation 102 is a user-specific knowledge representation or It can be either a concept identified in the knowledge representation, such as any other suitable knowledge representation, or a concept generated and used to build a user-specific knowledge representation including the active concept. Any of a variety of possible techniques can be used to identify or generate an active concept representing user context information. In some embodiments, an example of such a technique that can be used is illustrated in process 300 of FIG.

  Process 300 begins at operation 301 to identify relevant portions of user context information. As described above, the user context information includes information about the user (for example, a user profile on the website, a user browsing history, etc.) and information provided by the user (for example, a search query). It includes any of various types of information not limited to. This allows different parts of the user context information to be used in different scenarios. For example, when a user is searching for information, the relevant portion of the user context information may include the user's search query, but additional information that may help in searching for the information the user is looking for (eg, user Current location, user browsing history, etc.). As another example, when presenting one or more advertisements to a user, the relevant portion of the user context information may include information representing one or more products that the user is interested in. As another example, when providing a user with a news article (or any other suitable type of content), the relevant portion of user context information may include information that the user is interested in. The relevant portion of the acquired user context information (eg, in operation 102) may be identified in any suitable manner such that the manner in which the relevant portion of the user context information is identified does not limit aspects of the invention. it can. Also, in some examples, the relevant portion of the user context information can include a subset of the user context information, but in other embodiments, the relevant portion can include all of the user context information, It should be appreciated that aspects of the invention are not limited thereto.

  The relevant portion of the user context information identified in act 301 can be represented in any of a number of ways. For example, in some embodiments, the relevant portion of user context information may be represented as one or more alphanumeric strings. The alphanumeric string can include any suitable number of characters (including spaces), words, numbers, and / or a number of other symbols. The alphanumeric string may represent any suitable information that represents, for example, the user's search query and / or what information the user is interested in. However, it should be appreciated that any of a number of other data structures may be used to represent user context information and / or a portion of that user context information.

  The process 300 then proceeds to decision block 302 so that it is determined whether the relevant portion of the user context information associated with the particular user matches a concept in the knowledge representation. Any suitable knowledge representation can be used. In some examples, a user-specific knowledge representation associated with a user or a user group that includes the user may be used. However, any other suitable knowledge representation may be used, for example, a knowledge representation that is not suitable for any particular user or users.

  In some embodiments, the knowledge representation used can be a semantic network. However, in other embodiments, any other variety of knowledge representations (eg, non-graphical knowledge representations) can be used. The knowledge representation is constructed and / or acquired in any suitable manner, such that the manner in which the knowledge representation is constructed and / or acquired does not limit the aspects of the described methods and systems.

  Regardless of which knowledge representation is used in decision block 302, the determination of whether the relevant portion of the user context information matches a concept in the knowledge representation can be made in any suitable manner. In some embodiments, the relevant portion of the user context information can be compared to the concept identifier. For example, when the relevant part of the user context information is represented by an alphanumeric character string, the alphanumeric character string is used as a concept (sometimes a “concept label”) to determine whether a match exists. Can be compared to some string that identifies. Matches match exactly between strings, or exclude certain word sets (eg, “and”, “the”, “of”, etc.) Matches exactly so that all words match. Further, in some embodiments, the order of words in the string can be ignored. For example, the character string “(The Board of Directors) Board of Directors” can be determined to match the concept label “(Board Directors) Director” and a similar concept label “(Directors Board) Director”.

  If, at decision block 302, it is determined that the relevant part of the user context information matches a concept in the knowledge representation, the process 300 determines whether the multiple concepts in the knowledge representation match the relevant part. Then, the process proceeds to decision block 304. For example, the selected portion of the user context information may be an alphanumeric string “bark” indicating information about “bark” that the user has shown interest in. However, it may not be clear whether the user is interested in information about the bark of the dog or the bark of the tree. There are concepts associated with each such concept in the knowledge representation.

  If, at decision block 304, it is determined that there is only one concept in the knowledge representation that matches the relevant portion of the user context information, the one concept is identified as the active concept, and the process 300 is "No ”Branch to operation 320 where the active concept is returned for subsequent processing, as described in more detail below with reference to, for example, operations 106-110 of process 100.

  On the other hand, if it is determined that there are multiple concepts in the knowledge representation that match the relevant part of the user context information, the process 300 proceeds to operations 306-308 via a “yes” branch, where , One of the matching concepts is selected as the active concept. This can be done in any suitable way. In some embodiments, one of the plurality of matching concepts can be selected using a disambiguation process.

  Any suitable disambiguation process can be used to identify active concepts among multiple concepts that match relevant portions of user context information. Such a disambiguation process includes using one or more disambiguation terms to identify an active concept among a plurality of concepts, whereby the identified active concept is There is a possibility of expressing information that indicates interest. The disambiguation process includes generating a candidate set of disambiguation terms and selecting one or more candidate disambiguation terms to use to identify active concepts. For example, a candidate set of disambiguation terms that include the terms “dog” and “tree” may be generated. A subsequent selection of the disambiguation term "dog", performed automatically or based at least in part on user input, allows the user to be interested in information about "dog barking" It is expressed as shown. In this way, the selected disambiguation term can be used for semantic disambiguation among the plurality of concepts identified in operation 304 to identify the active concept.

  Accordingly, a candidate set of disambiguation terms can be generated at operation 306. This can be done in any suitable way. For example, the candidate set of disambiguation terms may be any other suitable consisting of one or more concepts among a plurality of concepts that match one or more keywords, morphemes, and / or related portions of user context information. A knowledge representation entity can be included. Also, the candidate set of disambiguation terms can be any one or more keywords, morphemes, and / or any arbitrary connected to one concept among multiple concepts within a predetermined degree of separation of the semantic network. Any other suitable KR entity of concept can be included. Any suitable degree of separation (eg, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc.) can be used. In some embodiments, the candidate set of disambiguation terms may not include any of the terms in the relevant part of the user context information, but in other embodiments, the candidate set of disambiguation terms is , One or more terms may be included in the relevant part of the user context information.

  The process 300 then proceeds to operation 308 to select one or more candidate disambiguation terms. The selection may be done in any suitable manner, may be performed automatically, and / or may include obtaining one or more disambiguation terms based on user input. For example, in some embodiments, one or more candidate disambiguation terms can be provided to the user so that the user can express those candidate disambiguations that represent what the user is interested in. You can select a term. Candidate disambiguation terms can be provided to the user in any of a variety of possible ways. For example, in some embodiments, the term can be provided to application program 204 on client 202 from which user context information has been obtained from server 208 (ie, the computer executing process 100). In embodiments where the application program 204 is an intranet or WWW browser, the term can be provided in the form of a web page. In this way, the user can select one or more terms to indicate the type of information that the user is interested in.

  Regardless of how one or more candidate disambiguation terms are provided to the user, user input including a selection of one or more disambiguation terms is received as part of operation 308 of process 300. For example, the application program 204 that has received the candidate set of disambiguation terms generated in operation 306 can accept input from a user that selects one or more terms, and the user runs on the server executing the process 100. An indication of the selected term (s) can be sent.

  In some embodiments, one or more disambiguation terms can be automatically selected from a candidate set of disambiguation terms without requiring any user input. For example, one or more terms from the candidate set of disambiguation terms generated at operation 306 may include user context information (eg, user browsing history, online profile, user selected priority (preference), or Other types of user context information as described above. For example, considering the situation where the user is looking for “bark”, it is clear from the user's browsing history that the user was interested in various information about the dog. In this case, the user may be searching for information about “dog bark” instead of “tree bark”. Therefore, the user context information can be used by selecting the term “dog” from the candidate set of disambiguation terms {“dog” and “tree”}. As another example, a user's online profile on a social network website indicates that the user is an avid botanist (or geospatial information associated with the user indicates that the user is located in the rainforest The user is likely searching for information about “tree bark” rather than “dog bark”. However, the above-described approach for selecting disambiguation terms should be recognized as an example only, so that disambiguation terms can be selected in any other suitable manner.

  In operation 308, the acquired term is used to identify an active concept among a plurality of concepts that match relevant portions of the user context information, regardless of how one or more disambiguation terms are acquired. Can be used. Thus, the identified active concept can represent information that is of interest to one or more users. After the active concept is identified at operation 308, process 300 proceeds to operation 320 so that the active process is returned for subsequent processing and process 300 is completed.

  Again, consider decision block 302 of process 300. If, at decision block 302, it is determined that the relevant part of the user context information does not match any concept of knowledge representation (output to the “No” branch), the process 300 determines that the relevant part of the user context information is 1 Proceed to operation 310 to decompose into one or more knowledge representation entities. For example, relevant portions of user context information can be broken down into individual concepts, keywords, and / or morphemes. This can be done in any suitable way. For example, if part of the user context information is represented by an alphanumeric string, this string can be tokenized or separated into a more elementary knowledge representation entity. Stop words such as “the” and “and” can be excluded or ignored. For example, if the alphanumeric string of the user's search query is “The BP Board of Directors”, the query is tokenized to the next entity “Board of Directors), “BP Board”, “BP Directors”, “BP”, “Board”, “directors”, and the like. It should be recognized that many other techniques can be applied to separate the relevant part of the user context information into knowledge representation entities that include semantic analysis methods, No. 13 / 165,423, filed June 21, entitled “Systems and Methods for Analyzing and Synthesizing Complex Knowledge Representations”, which is incorporated herein by reference. Incorporated in the description.

  Process 300 proceeds to operation 312 such that concepts in the knowledge representation that cover the KR entity derived in operation 310 are identified. This can be done in any suitable way, for example by comparing each of the KR entities with a concept in the KR to see if there is a match. In some embodiments, a string associated with a KR entity can be compared to a concept label in the KR. For example, consider the semantic network 401 shown in FIG. 4A, which includes concepts 402 and 406 labeled “Board of Directors” and “Board”, respectively. Concepts 402 and 406 are connected by a “defined-by” edge 404. Although not explicitly indicated, the nodes associated with the concept labeled “Board of Directors” are passed through the “defined-by” edge through the “directors” You can also connect to the node associated with the concept labeled “Directors”. Thus, the nodes present in the semantic network 401 cover the KR entities “Board of Directors”, “Directors”, and “Board”. Note that these KR entities are derived from the alphanumeric string “BP Board of Directors” in operation 310 of process 300. Note that the semantic network 401 does not include a concept labeled “BP Board of Directors”.

  Process 300 can then be used to generate an active concept corresponding to the relevant portion of the user context information, which can then be used to build a user-specific knowledge representation that includes this active concept. Proceed to 318. Initially, at operation 314, an active concept associated with the relevant portion of the user context information is generated. This can be done in any suitable way. For example, a new node can be added to the knowledge representation and associated with the relevant part of the user context information. In this way, an identifier (ie, a concept label) that includes the relevant part of the user context information can be assigned to the node. For example, as shown in FIG. 4B, nodes 408 associated with the generated active concept and labeled “BP Board of Directors” may form a semantic network 403. , Added to the semantic network 401. In this and other diagrams of the semantic network, nodes corresponding to active concepts can be indicated by rectangles.

  Then, as part of operation 316, the new node can be connected to one or more concepts already in the knowledge representation by one or more new edges. A new node representing the generated active concept can be connected to any suitable concept in the knowledge representation, for example in a knowledge representation covering a knowledge representation entity derived from the relevant part of the user context information. Can be connected to one or more concepts. Thus, in the example of “BP Board of Directors”, node 408 is assigned to the node associated with the concept of “Board of Directors” and to the concept of “Board”. Connected to associated nodes and / or to nodes associated with the concept of “Directors”.

  In some embodiments, the new node may also connect to the node associated with the most complex concept that covers the KR entity derived in operation 310. The complexity of the concept can be defined in any of a number of ways. The complexity of a concept is an indicator of the number of other concepts that are “defined by” concepts, and the number of “defined by” concepts is large. Indeed, the complexity of the concept increases. Thus, the complexity of a concept can be proportional to the number of outwardly defined “by” edges from the node corresponding to that concept. In the semantic network 401, for example, the concept of “Board of Directors” is more complex than the concept of “Board”. As another example, the complexity of a concept can be indicated by the number of words in the label of the concept, the greater the number of words, the greater the complexity. Therefore, the complexity of the concept is proportional to the number of words in the concept label. In this case, the concept “Board of Directors” is more complex than the concept of “Board”. Thus, the node 408 associated with the concept of “BP Board of Directors” is “separated by” a new “defined by” edge 410 in the semantic network 405. It is connected to a node 402 corresponding to the concept of “Board of Directors”.

  Finally, at operation 318, the knowledge representation is further augmented to include concepts such that this knowledge representation covers all of the KR entities derived from the relevant portion of the user context information at operation 310. be able to. To achieve this goal, a new node can be added to the knowledge representation for each KR entity derived at operation 310, but is not covered by existing concepts in the knowledge representation. Each such new node can be connected to one or more concepts that exist in the knowledge representation, and active generated, for example, via a "defined-by" edge Can connect to concepts associated with the concept. For example, the keyword “BP” was derived from the new concept “BP Board of Directors”, but is not covered by either concept in the semantic network 401 or 403. Thus, as shown in FIG. 4C, the node 416 associated with the concept “BP” may be added to the knowledge representation at operation 318 and the “defined-by” edge 414. May be connected to a node 408 associated with the active concept.

  In this way, a new user-specific knowledge representation is formed after operations 314-318 are performed. The formed knowledge representation includes the one or more concepts derived from user context information associated with one or more users and the knowledge representation used in operation 302. , Become unique to the user. In the example of FIGS. 4A-4C, semantic network 405 represents two concepts (ie, “BP” obtained from user context information and “BP Board of Directors”) as semantic network 401. Formed by incorporating it into However, it should be recognized that the examples of FIGS. Process 300 then proceeds to operation 320 so that the active concept generated in operations 314-318 is provided for subsequent processing, and after operation 320, process 300 is completed.

  It should be understood that after a user specific knowledge representation is formed, the formed knowledge representation may then be stored for use in any process associated with one or more users. For example, user specific knowledge representations may be used and / or constantly updated process 100 or 300 may be performed in connection with the user (s). The user-specific knowledge representation can be stored in any suitable manner, for example, stored using any suitable type of one or more non-transitory, tangible computer readable storage media. it can.

III. Identifying Concepts Associated with Active Concepts As described above, in operation 106 of process 100, one or more concepts associated with an active concept can be obtained by using a knowledge representation that includes the active concept. The knowledge representation can be any suitable knowledge representation, and in some examples, a user-specific knowledge representation associated with that user (s) for which context information is obtained at operation 102 of process 100 can do. The active concept can be any suitable concept within the knowledge representation, eg, identified based at least in part on user context information using process 300 or in any other suitable manner. Can do.

  In some embodiments, one or more concepts associated with the active concept may be obtained based at least in part on the structure of the knowledge representation that includes the active concept. For example, when the knowledge representation is a semantic network, one or more concepts associated with the active concept can be obtained based at least in part on the structure of the graph representing the semantic network. Any of a number of aspects of the graph structure is the directionality of the edges representing the semantic relationship between concepts, and this semantic relationship is a "defined-by" relationship or "- (is-a) "relationship or not. Additionally or alternatively, the structure of the graph may be used to synthesize one or more new concepts related to the active concept that do not initially exist in the semantic network. In this case, any of the synthesized concepts may be used to augment (extend) the semantic network.

  Any of a number of techniques for obtaining a concept related to the active concept based on the graph structure of the semantic network that includes the active concept may be used in operation 106 of process 100. In some embodiments, concepts related to active concepts may be obtained by performing one or more types of operations on the graph structure of the semantic network. Three such operations are described in more detail below: (1) search operation, (2) additive operation, and (3) replace operation. These three operations are merely exemplary, but using any other suitable operation to identify a concept related to the active concept, based at least in part on the graph structure of the semantic network Also good. For brevity, in the following description of operations, no explicit distinction is made between the nodes of the graph used to represent the concept and the concept itself. In this way, an edge between two concepts corresponds to an edge between nodes in the semantic graph used to represent these two concepts.

  A search operation may be used to identify a concept in the semantic network associated with the active concept. In some embodiments, the search operation may be used to identify concepts that were represented in the semantic network before the active concepts are identified and / or generated. However, in other embodiments, the search operation may be used to identify concepts that have been added to the semantic network when an active concept is generated (eg, at operation 318 of process 300).

  In some embodiments, the search operation can identify a concept that is connected to the active concept as one concept related to the active concept by one or more edges of any suitable type and / or direction. . For example, a search operation may identify a concept that is connected to an active concept as a concept related to the active concept by one or more “is-a” edges. As a specific example, the search operation may be a concept that has an outward “is-a” edge towards the active concept, or an inward “˜” from the active concept as a concept related to the active concept. Concepts with “is-a” edges can be identified.

  A simple example of a search operation is shown in FIG. 5A, where the active concept “press” (concept “press” is active, here shown as a rectangle) And a semantic network including another concept "push press". The concept “push press” is connected to the active concept via an outward “is-a” relationship. Thus, the search operation can be used to identify the concept “push press” as a concept related to the active concept. Note that in FIGS. 5A-5H, the concept (s) identified as the concept (s) associated with the active concept are indicated by diamonds.

  In contrast to search operations such as those used to obtain concepts related to active concepts among existing concepts in the semantic network, the add and replace operations described below are active concepts and By combining new concepts based at least in part on the concepts in the semantic network, they can be used to obtain concepts related to the active concepts. Note that in 5B-5H, the concept added to the active concept to synthesize a new concept is shown as a hexagon.

  The additive operation can combine the new concept using the active concept and at least one other concept in the semantic network and return the new concept as a concept related to the active concept. This new concept consists of (1) co-definition of attributes, (2) analogy-by-parent, (3) analogy-by-sibling, and (4) common attributes. Or any suitable combination thereof can be synthesized using any of a number of approaches.

  In some embodiments, additive operations can be used to synthesize new concepts using attribute co-definition techniques. The first concept in the semantic network becomes an attribute of the second concept in the semantic network when the first concept defines the second concept. This is determined from the graph showing the semantic network when there is an outward "defined-by" edge from the second concept to the first concept. For example, as shown in FIG. 5B, the concepts “bench”, “press”, and “sets” are attributes of the concept “bench press sets”; The concepts “press” and “sets” are attributes of the concept “press sets”. The active concept is an attribute of the first concept (ie, connected to the first concept via an outwardly defined “by-defined” edge), and the first concept is In the case of having one or more other concepts as attributes, the active concept and the other concept (s) can be considered as co-defining the first concept. For example, in FIG. 5B, “press” is the active concept, and the concepts “press”, “bench”, and “sets” are the concepts “bench press set”. sets) ”.

  In an attribute co-definition approach, a new concept can be synthesized by combining the active concept with any of the other concepts that co-define one concept that contains the active concept. For example, as shown in FIG. 5B, the concept “press sets” can be synthesized by combining “press” and “sets”. As another example (not shown in FIG. 5B), the concept “bench press” can be synthesized by combining “press” and “bench”.

  In some embodiments, additive operations can be used to synthesize new concepts by using relative analogy techniques. In a semantic network, a first concept that has an outwardly “is-a” edge relative to the second concept can be viewed as a child concept consisting of the second concept. In other words, the second concept can be regarded as the parent concept of the first concept. For example, in FIG. 5C, the concept “seat” is the parent concept of the active concept “recliner”. The relative analogy method is motivated by the idea that attributes that co-define a concept with the active concept of the parent are related to the active concept. To put it more clearly, something (concept) related to a parent may relate to a child.

  Thus, in the relative analogy method, the new concept uses the active concept and any second concept to co-define (or partially co-define) the third concept along with the parent active concept. Can be synthesized. For example, in FIG. 5C, the concept “seat” which is the parent concept of “recliner” and “toilet” together define the concept “toilet seat”. . In this way, the concept “toilet” can co-define another concept (with the parent's active concept) and thus be considered related to the parent's active concept. Thus, the active concept “recliner” and the concept “toilet” can be used to synthesize a new concept “recliner toilet”.

  In some embodiments, additive operations can be used to synthesize new concepts by using sibling analogy techniques. In a semantic network, any two concepts that have outgoing “is-a” edges that terminate in a common (parent) concept may be considered sibling concepts. For example, in FIG. 5D, the concepts “chair” and “recliner” may be considered as sibling concepts. Relative reasoning is motivated by the idea that attributes that co-define a concept with an active concept of siblings are related to the active concept. To put it more clearly, something (concept) related to one sibling may be related to another sibling.

  Thus, in the relative reasoning method, the new concept can be combined with the active concept of the sibling relationship, along with the active concept and any second concept, so as to co-define (or partially co-define) the third concept. Can be synthesized. For example, in FIG. 5D, the active concept “recliner” and the sibling concept “chair” and “massage” are combined together to create the concept “massage chair”. Co-regulate. In this way, the concept “massage” co-defines another concept (with the concept of siblings), and thus can be regarded as related to the sibling concept “chair”. . Thus, the active concept “recliner” and the concept “massage” can be used to synthesize a new concept “massage recliner”.

  The terms “parent” and “sibling” are used to provide insight behind some of the operations described above, and in some embodiments, such atomics (which form an atomic nucleus). It should be recognized that concepts such as knowledge representation models may not include literal “parent” and “sibling” relationships. The terms “siblings” and “parents” propose taxonomic structures within complex knowledge representations. In contrast, in some embodiments, an atomic knowledge representation model can include only “is-a” and “defined-by” relationships.

  In some embodiments, additive operations can be used to synthesize new concepts by using attribute commonality techniques. In a semantic network, if the concept (s) share one or more attributes with each other, the two concepts can be considered to indicate “attribute commonality”. For example, as shown in FIG. 5E, the concepts “massage chair” and “shiatsu therapy massage chair” are attribute “massage” and “chair”. Can be considered to show the commonality of attributes. The attribute commonality technique is such that if the first concept shares one or more attributes with the second concept, then any other attribute of the second concept is related to the first concept. Motivated by thoughts.

  Thus, in the attribute commonality approach, a new concept can be synthesized by using the active concept and any attribute of the second concept that shares one or more attributes with the active concept. For example, as shown in FIG. 5E, the active concept “massage chair” and the concept “shiatsu therapy massage chair” which has a common attribute with this “massage chair”. The “shiatsu” attribute, which may be used to synthesize a new concept “shiatsu massage chair”. As another example, although not shown in FIG. 5E, the active concepts “massage chair” and “therapy” synthesize a new concept “massage therapy chair”. May be used for

  In some embodiments, the attribute commonality approach is new by using an active concept and another concept identified using at least one “is-a” bridge. It may include generating a concept. In a semantic network, two concepts are "~" if they both share an outward "is-a" edge that terminates in a common (parent) concept. (is-a) "connected via a bridge. For example, in FIG. 5F, the concepts “yoga” and “weightlifting” are connected to the concept “exercise” via a “is-a” bridge. Also, the concepts “mat” and “bench” are connected to the concept “furniture” via the “is-a” bridge.

  In the attribute commonality approach, the new concept uses an active concept and a second concept that has an attribute connected to an attribute of the active concept via an “is-a” bridge. It may be synthesized. In some examples, the new concept uses the active concept and any attribute of the second concept that is not connected to an attribute of the active concept via an “is-a” bridge. May be synthesized. For example, as shown in FIG. 5F, the active concept “yoga mat” has “yoga” and “mat” as its attributes. Each of these attributes is connected to an attribute of the concept “sweat-absorbent weightlifting bench”. Thus, the active concept “yoga mat” and the attribute “sweat-absorbent” can be used to synthesize a new concept “sweat-absorbent yoga mat”.

  The above-described approach for performing additive operations involves combining a new concept as a concept related to the active concept by combining the active concept with another concept. As a result, the synthesized concept can be a less general or “narrower” concept than the active concept. However, the concept related to the active concept needs to be more general than the active concept, and in fact it may be a more general or “broader” concept than the active concept. I want to be recognized.

  Thus, in some embodiments, one or more attributes of the active concept may be pruned to generate candidates that are more general than the active concept. . This can be done in any suitable way. As an example, an attribute may be pruned by performing an “inverse” additive operation, where the attribute of the active concept is “broader” as a result of pruning, according to any of the techniques described above. Removed when combined with a concept. For example, in the semantic network shown in FIG. 5E, the concept “shiatsu massage chair” was the active concept and the concept “massage chair” did not exist in the network. In some cases, the concept “massage chair” can then be formed by pruning the attribute “shiatsu”. In some embodiments, any suitable attribute may be pruned as long as the resulting concept does not exist in the semantic network. For example, the attribute “massage” may be pruned to obtain the concept “shiatsu chair”.

  Another operation used to obtain one or more concepts associated with an active concept is a replacement operation. A replace operation is used to synthesize a new concept by replacing one or more attributes of the active concept with another concept, which is a wider or narrower concept than the pre-replacement attribute. There may be. To perform the replacement, either a search operation or an additive operation may be performed on one or more attributes of the active concept. When executed on specific attributes of an active concept, concepts identified or generated by search or additive operations can be used to replace specific attributes to synthesize new concepts.

  For example, consider that the semantic network shown in FIG. 5G includes an active concept “strict press” that includes the attributes “strict” and “press”. As described above with reference to FIG. 5A, a search operation performed on the attribute “press” can be used to identify the (narrower) concept “push press”. . According to the replacement method, this narrower concept (“push press”) is an attribute or attributes of the active concept (other than the attribute from which the narrower concept was derived) to synthesize a new concept. Can be combined. In this way, the concept “strict push press” may be synthesized. Similarly, replacement using a search operation may be performed to replace an attribute of an active concept that has a broader concept than that attribute.

  FIG. 5H illustrates performing the replacement operation by using an additive operation based on the attribute co-definition technique. In this example, by applying the attribute co-regulation technique to the attribute “press” of the active concept “push press”, the concept “press set” as described above with reference to FIG. sets) ”. Thus, the concept “press sets” replaces the attribute “press” of the concept “push press” to synthesize the new concept “push press sets”. Can be used to

  In the same context, replacement operations that use any other type of additive operation (eg, relative analogy, sibling analogy, and attribute commonality) on one or more attributes of the active concept are related to the active concept. It may be used to synthesize more than one concept.

IV. Scoring and selecting the identified concept (s) using related measurements or multiple measurements After one or more concepts related to the active concept are acquired in act 106, the process 100 may acquire Proceed to operation 108 so that the concepts that have been scored are selected and a subset of the concepts is selected for subsequent use based on this calculated score. The score associated with the concept obtained at act 106 can be calculated in any of a number of ways. In some embodiments, the score may be obtained by using one or more related measurements that indicate how the concept being scored is related to the active concept. Related measurements are calculated based at least in part on the structure of the graph representing a semantic network that includes the concepts to be scored and the active concepts.

  The five measures of relevance are described in more detail below with some variations: (1) generation certainty, (2) concept productivity, (3 ) Jaccard, (4) statistical coherence, and (5) cosine similarity. It should be appreciated that these techniques are merely exemplary and any other suitable technique for assigning scores to concepts may be used. As described in more detail below, for example, any of the techniques described above can be combined to calculate an integrated score for the concepts obtained in act 106.

IV. A Generation certainty method In the certainty method, the score of a concept can be calculated based at least in part on the structure of the semantic network containing the concept. Recall that any of the concepts acquired in operation 106 of process 100 exist in the semantic network or are added to the semantic network after they are synthesized. The generated certainty score calculated for a particular concept may depend on the structure of the semantic network, as well as the location and active concept of the particular concept within the semantic network. The score is the number of edges in the path between the active concept and the specific concept, the number of nodes in the path between the active concept and the specific concept, and the number of edges in the path between the active concept and the specific concept. Type, type of node in the path between the active concept and the specific concept, directionality of the edge in the path between the active concept and the specific concept, in the path between the active concept and the specific concept Depending on any of a number of aspects of the structure of the semantic network, including but not limited to any weighting associated with the edge, and any suitable combination thereof. It should be appreciated that the graph structure representing the semantic network may have one or more paths between the active concept and the concept to be scored.

  In some embodiments, for example, the generated certainty score calculated for a particular concept may be inversely proportional to the number of edges and / or nodes that separate the active concept from the particular concept in the semantic graph. . Accordingly, the score calculated for a concept separated from the active concept by a large number of edges and / or nodes is higher than the score calculated for a concept separated from the active concept by a smaller number of edges and / or nodes. It can be lowered.

  As described above, in some embodiments, the generation certainty score may be calculated as a function of the weight associated with the edges in the semantic network. Specifically, the generation certainty score may be calculated as a function of the weight associated with the set of edges in the path between the active concept and the concept to be scored. In this case, the generation certainty score may be calculated by taking the weighted product of the edges in the path from the active concept to the concept to be scored.

  Weights can be assigned to edges in the semantic network in any of a number of ways. In some embodiments, the weight assigned to an edge can be calculated based on a measure of certainty associated with traversing that edge. Next, the total amount of certainty associated across the edge is the type of edge (ie, "defined-by" edge or "is-a" edge) ) And / or the direction of crossing. In some embodiments, the weight assigned to the edge may be a number between 0 and 1, while in other embodiments the weight is a number within any other suitable range. May be.

  For example, "defined-by" edge traversal can reduce the certainty associated to traverse the edge by a factor of x, where x is It can be any suitable number between 0 and 1, and can be any factor equal to or greater than, for example, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 0.9, etc. Good. Similarly, traversing an "is-a" edge can reduce certainty to traverse the edge by a factor of y, where y is between 0 and 1 It can be any suitable number and can be any larger coefficient, for example equal to 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 0.9, etc. In some examples, the factor x may be equal to the factor y, but in some examples, these factors may indicate that the total amount of certainty associated to traverse the edge is the type of edge that is to be traversed. It may be different to depend on.

  In some embodiments, the total amount of certainty associated to traverse an edge is the directionality of the edge and when the edge traverses that edge in the path from one concept to another, Depending on the direction traversed. For example, moving from concept A to concept B (where A is B “is-a”) is associated with concept B from the node associated with concept A in the semantic network. There is an outward “is-a” edge to the node), while reducing the total amount of certainty by one factor (eg, 0.9), while “is-a ) "Movement in the opposite direction to the edge direction can reduce certainty by a different factor (eg 0.8).

  In some embodiments, the generation certainty score assigned to a concept is obtained by using the search operation (ie, the concept already exists in the semantic network) or additive It may depend on whether it was obtained using an operation or replacement operation (ie, the concept was synthesized). For example, the generation certainty score can be reduced by a factor (eg, 0.25) when the concept is synthesized.

As one illustration, a non-limiting example of calculating a production certainty score is shown in FIG. 6A. In this case, the generation certainty of the candidate “massage recliner” is within the path from the active concept “recliner” to the synthesized concept “massage recliner”. It may be calculated as a product of weights associated with the edges. As shown in FIG. 6A, the weight associated with each of the “defined-by” edges along the path is 0.9, and “~” along the path. The weight associated with each of the “is-a)” edges is 0.75. Furthermore, since the concept “massage recliner” is a synthesized concept, the overall generation certainty score is adjusted by a factor of 0.25. In this way, the generation certainty score, S _gc , may be calculated according to the following formula:
Sgc = Edge _{recliner-seat} * Edge _seat-chair * Edge _{chair-massage chair} * Edge _{massage chair-massage} * Node _{massage recliner}
= Edge _is-a * Edge _is-a * Edge _defmed-by * Edge _defmed-by * Node _synthesized
= 0.9 * 0.9 * 0.75 * 0.75 * 0.25 = 0.1139

  In some embodiments, a weighting value associated with an edge in a semantic network may be manually assigned (eg, a weight of 0.9 is assigned to an “is-a” edge). It will be appreciated that and 0.75 weights are assigned to “defined-by” edges). Additionally or alternatively, the weighting numbers are based on statistical coherence calculated as probabilities using the teachings described below and / or disclosed in the following references, where the references are US Provisional Application No. 61 / 430,810 entitled “Probabilistic Approach for Synthesis of a Semantic Network, filed Jan. 7, 2011; filed Jan. 7, 2011,” US Provisional Application 61 / 430,836 entitled “Constructing Knowledge Representations Using Atomic Semantics and Probabilistic Model”; filed September 8, 2011, “Systems and methods for Incorporating User Model and Preferences into Analysis and US Provisional Application No. 61 / 532,330 entitled “Synthesis of Complex Knowledge Representation Model”; In their entirety to this is incorporated by reference.

IV. B Concept Productivity Score In the concept productivity approach, the concept score can be calculated based on the number of other concepts in the semantic network in which the concept is defined. For example, a concept's concept productivity score can be calculated based on the number of inward “defined-by” edges that the concept has. Some further examples are provided below.

  For example, the productivity score for a concept assigned to a concept obtained using a search operation (eg, described with reference to operation 106 of process 100) is calculated based on the number of concepts that the concept defines. May be. For example, the active concept is “press”, and this active concept is the concept “push press” and the inward “is-a” relationship and the concept “ It has a “dumbbell press” and an inward “is-a” relationship. In this way, both of these concepts can be retrieved as concepts related to the active concept in operation 106. However, if the number of concepts defined by the concept “push press” is greater than the number of concepts defined by the concept “dumbbell press”, then the concept “push press” “push press” would be assigned a higher concept productivity score than the concept “dumbbell press”.

  As another example, a concept productivity score assigned to a concept obtained using an additive operation (e.g., described with reference to operation 106 of process 100) can be used to generate a synthesized concept. The calculation may be based on the number of concepts defined by the concept to be added to the active concept. For example, the active concept is “press” and the concept synthesized using any of the additive operations can be “press sets” or “press movements”. . If the number of concepts defined by “movements” is greater than the number of concepts defined by “sets”, then the concept “press movements” A higher concept productivity score will be assigned than “press sets”.

  As another example, the concept productivity score assigned to a concept obtained using the replace operation is calculated based on the number of concepts defined by the replaced concept for any of the active concept attributes. May be. For example, the active concept is “push press” and its attribute “press” is replaced by the concept “press sets” or the concept “press movements”. May be. If the number of concepts defined by the concept “press movements” is greater than the number of concepts defined by the concept “press sets”, then the synthesized concept “push press” “Push press movements” would be assigned a higher concept productivity score than the synthesized concept “push press sets”.

IV. C Jakar Score In the Jakar Scoring method, the score for a particular concept is based on the number of concepts that are within a certain degree of separation from the active concept, and also within the same degree of separation from a particular concept May be calculated. For example, when the degree of separation is 1, the Jakar score of a specific concept can be calculated based on the number of neighbors common between the specific concept and the active concept. In the semantic network, the neighborhood of concept A is a concept that shares any type of edge with concept A. Since these neighboring concepts share an edge, the neighborhoods of the concepts are within a single degree of separation from the concepts. In this case, the greater the number of neighbors common between the active concept and the concept to be scored, the higher the Jakar score assigned to that concept. Thus, the Jakar score provides an indication of how the two concepts are interconnected in the semantic network, which in turn is an indication of the relevance of the two concepts. However, it should be appreciated that any degree of separation (eg, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, etc.) can be used.

The Jakar index is a similarity measure for measuring the similarity between the two sets A and B. In some examples, the Jakar index may be defined as the value of the intersection of sets A and B divided by the size of the union of sets A and B, as shown below.

  The Jakar index may be applied in this case as follows. The set A represents a set of concepts that exist in the vicinity of the active concept, that is, exist within a predetermined number of degrees of separation from the active concept in the semantic network. The set B represents a set of concepts that exist in the vicinity of the concept to be scored, that is, within a predetermined number of degrees of separation from the concept to be scored in the semantic network. Thus, the denominator of the above equation represents the total number of concepts present in the vicinity of the active concept and / or the concept to be scored (or present within a predetermined number of resolutions), while the numerator Represents the total number of concepts that are present in the vicinity of the concept to be evaluated and the concept to be evaluated (or present within a predetermined number of separations). Thus, a concept's Jakar score can be calculated as a Jakar index.

  An example of calculating a Jakar score for a concept acquired in operation 106 of process 100 is shown in FIG. 6B. In this example, the neighborhood of the concept is selected as including a concept having a concept separation degree of 2 degrees. However, it should be understood that the neighborhood (degrees) associated with any suitable degree of separation is used. Thus, all concepts within the second degree from either the active concept or the concept 602 that is the concept to be scored have a degree of separation of 2 from both the active concept and the concept 602. As long as it is within the range of degrees, it is shown with diagonal lines. Such a concept where both the active concept and concept 602 are within the range of 2 degrees is indicated by a vertical line. To calculate the Jakar score, the number of concepts with either diagonal or vertical lines is confirmed to be the number of concepts in the denominator of the Jakar score (25). The number of concepts with vertical lines (7) is the number of concepts in the numerator of the Jakar score. Accordingly, the Jakar score for concept 602 is calculated as 7 divided by 25, ie 0.28.

  In some embodiments, as in the embodiment shown in FIG. 6B, neither the active concept nor the concept to be scored is considered to be on its own or in the vicinity of each other. However, in other embodiments, the active concept and / or the concept to be scored can be considered to exist on their own and / or in the vicinity of each other. In the illustration of FIG. 6B, for example, if the active concept and concept 602 are considered to be in their own and close to each other, the Jakar score is calculated as 9 divided by 27, ie 0.333. Is done.

  In some embodiments, the Jakar score is calculated as the complement of the Jakar index according to 1-J (A, B) such that the Jakar score is an indicator of the measure of difference between concepts A and B. May be. In this case, it should be appreciated that concepts having a lower score (rather than a higher score) are selected in operation 108 of process 100. Also in this case, a concept with a higher Jakar score is considered to have a weaker relationship with the active concept than a concept with a lower score.

  When a Jakar score is calculated for a concept obtained using a search operation (eg, described with reference to operation 106), the Jakar score is obtained by applying the technique described above to the searched concept. Can be acquired. However, when a Jakar score is calculated for a concept that is synthesized via an additive operation, the Jakar score does not apply the above-described technique to the synthesized concept, but rather generates a synthesized concept. To the concept combined with the active concept (for example, the concept “shiatsu” shown in FIG. 5E). Similarly, when a Jakar score is calculated for a concept that is synthesized via a replace operation, the Jakar score does not apply the technique described above to the synthesized concept, but rather replaces the attributes of the active concept By applying to the concepts used to replace them as part of (eg, the concept “press sets” shown in FIG. 5H).

IV. D Statistical Coherence Score Another technique for calculating the score for the concept obtained in operation 106 is the so-called “statistical coherence” technique, where the statistical coherence score assigned to a particular concept is 1 In more than one text corpora, it will depend on the co-occurrence frequency of the concept and the active context. Thus, concepts that co-occur more frequently with active concepts can be more related to active concepts than concepts that rarely co-occur with active concepts.

  Any suitable corpus or corpora can be used to calculate a statistical coherence score for the concept acquired in operation 106 of process 100. For example, the corpora may be from a single information source (eg, all content found at a URL containing the string “wikipedia.org”) or from multiple information sources. As another example, a subject-specific corpora may be used as a corpora that includes content related to politics, medical supplies, sports, and the like. Each corpus may be of any suitable type, for example, a text corpus or a corpus that includes multiple types of content.

  Regardless of the number and type of corpora used to calculate the coherence score, in some embodiments, the active concept is a subset of content in the corpora (eg, part of a document in a text corpus). Selected and used to calculate a statistical coherence score. This can be done in any suitable way. For example, the active concept can be used to select content related to the active concept, for example, so that only that content that includes the label of the active concept exists.

  In some embodiments, the content used for statistical coherence calculation can be further limited to that content including the active concept and at least one concept in the vicinity of the active concept in the semantic network. Recall that such neighborhoods can include all concepts in a semantic network that exist within a certain number of degrees of separation (eg, 1, 2, 3, 4 etc.) from active concepts. . Additional restrictions can be achieved in any suitable way, but for example by using only its content including the label of the active concept and at least one other concept label in the vicinity of this active concept Can be achieved. Limiting the corpora based on the active concept and its neighbors does not take into account the content that contains the active concept label but is directed to a different meaning when calculating the statistical coherence score, This can be advantageous.

  For example, the active concept is `` bat '', and the concepts found within the vicinity of the active concept are the concepts `` baseball bat '', `` club '', `` paddle '' ) '' And `` lumber '', the content used to calculate the statistical coherence score is the active concept `` bat '' and the adjacent concept `` baseball bat '' ”,“ Club ”,“ paddle ”, and“ bat ”(lumber). Inclusion of at least one of these neighborhood concepts includes the concept “bat”, but documents not related to the mammalian “bat” are avoided in calculating the statistical coherence score. The likelihood (possibility) increases.

  Thus, in some embodiments, the statistical coherence score is calculated based on the active concept, at least one concept in the vicinity of the active concept, and the number of documents containing the concept to be scored, It can be calculated as a function of the ratio to the number of documents containing at least one concept. The function can be any suitable function, for example, an identity function or any other suitable monotonically increasing function (eg, logarithm). When calculated in this way, the statistical coherence score can be reflected in proportion to the total number of documents associated with the active concept as it also relates to the concept to be scored. Thus, the higher the statistical coherence score for a concept, the more likely it is to fit in relation to the active concept.

  In some embodiments, the statistical coherence score is the number of documents that include the active concept, at least one concept in the vicinity of the active concept, the concept to be scored, and at least one concept in the vicinity of the concept to be scored. Can be calculated as a function of the ratio of the active concept and the number of documents containing the at least one concept in the vicinity of the active concept (to date, the denominator). Computing statistical coherence scores in this way is that content that contains labels for the concepts to be scored but is oriented differently is not considered when computing statistical coherence scores. It will be advantageous.

  For example, the concepts “field game” and “sport” can be in the vicinity of a candidate “cricket”. Used in calculating statistical coherence scores only for documents that contain the concept "cricket" and at least one concept from "field game" and "sport" Limiting documents includes the concept “cricket”, but documents where the insect “cricket” is removed are avoided when calculating the statistical coherence score, increasing the likelihood.

  In some embodiments, the statistical coherence score is a document that includes an active concept, at least one concept in the vicinity of the active concept, a concept to be scored, and optionally at least one concept in the vicinity of the concept to be scored. Can be calculated by using only a subset of In this case, the statistical coherence score can be calculated as a function of the so-called term frequency (TF) score of the concept to be scored in one or more documents in the subset of documents described above. .

  In some embodiments, the TF score for the concept to be scored can be calculated for each document in the subset, and the statistical coherence score is calculated as the mean or median of the calculated TF scores. be able to. Alternatively, the statistical coherence score may be calculated as the calculated maximum TF score. This situation can be advantageous if the concept to be scored appears infrequently in many documents in the subset of documents used to calculate the statistical coherence score.

  In yet another embodiment, the statistical coherence score can be calculated as a function of the inverse document frequency (IDF) score, which is used by the concept to be scored to calculate the statistical coherence score. It can be calculated as the reciprocal of how often it appears in the set of documents being played. In yet another embodiment, the statistical coherence score may depend on the product of the term frequency and the inverse document frequency score. It should be understood that in some embodiments, the value calculated in the process of calculating the statistical coherence score may be normalized.

  The method by which the statistical coherence score is calculated, as in the case of calculating the Jakar score, may depend on whether the concept to be scored has been retrieved from the semantic network, or alternatively, the operation of the process 100 It should be understood that it may depend on whether it was synthesized during 106. When the concept to be scored is synthesized using an additive operation, the statistical coherence score is not applied to the synthesized concept of the above approach, but rather active to generate a synthesized concept. It can be obtained by applying to a concept combined with a concept (eg, the concept “shiatsu” shown in FIG. 5E). Similarly, when a statistical coherence score is being calculated for a concept synthesized via a replacement operation, the statistical coherence score does not apply the technique described above to the synthesized concept, but instead of the active concept. It can be obtained by applying the attribute to the concept used to replace it as part of the replace operation (eg, the concept “press sets” shown in FIG. 5H).

IV. E Cosine Similarity Score In a cosine similarity approach, the cosine similarity score for a particular concept can be calculated using a cosine similarity metric to evaluate the semantic proximity between the paired concepts. In order to evaluate the cosine similarity metric between the two concepts A and B, each of the concepts is mapped to two vectors in Euclidean space of any suitable dimension. The cosine similarity between two concepts can be calculated as the ratio of the inner product between the two vectors and the product of the magnitudes of the two vectors. This ratio represents the cosine of the angle between the two vectors that gives rise to “cosine similarity”.

  Concepts can be mapped to vectors in any suitable way. For example, a concept can be mapped to a vector containing the coordinates of each of the concept's attributes, with each coordinate containing the number associated with the attribute. Thus, if concept A has 10 attributes, this concept can be mapped to a 10-dimensional vector such that the number of each dimension is associated with the corresponding attribute. The number (number) corresponding to the attribute may be any suitable number, for example, a term frequency (TF) score or a TF-IDF score associated with the attribute.

IV. F Integrated Score As noted above, any of the types of scores described above may be combined to form an integrated score that can be assigned to the concept acquired in operation 106 of process 100. However, in some embodiments, the scores need not be combined, and only one of the aforementioned types of scores may be assigned to each concept acquired in operation 106.

  In embodiments where one or more types of scores can be combined to form an integrated score, the scores can be combined in any of a number of ways. For example, the scores can be combined by calculating a weighted linear combination score to calculate an integrated score. The weighting used to combine the scores may be any suitable weighting that reflects which score should be more weighted when combining the score with the integrated score Can be increased or decreased. The scores and / or weights can be normalized in any suitable manner before being combined into the integrated score.

  After a score is assigned to the concept obtained in operation 106 of process 100, one or more scored concepts can be selected for subsequent use based on the calculated score. . The selection based on the score can be done in any suitable way. In some embodiments, for example, a concept associated with a score that exceeds a predetermined threshold may be selected for subsequent use. Alternatively, a predetermined number or a predetermined percentage of the concepts of the top score can be selected. However, it should be recognized that many other ways of using the score to select one or more concepts will be apparent to those skilled in the art.

V. Providing content to the user (s) based on the active concept and the selected concept (s) After one or more concepts associated with the active concept are selected in operation 108, the process 100 includes: A user whose information is associated with the user context information obtained in operation 102 based at least in part on the active concept identified or generated in operation 104 and the related concept (s) selected in operation 108 Proceed to operation 110 as provided. For this purpose, the information presented to the user (s) can be selected from a large set of information using the active concept and the related concept (s) selected in action 108. . However, the type of information provided to the user (s) and the manner in which the information is provided to the user (s) depend on the particular scenario to which the techniques described herein apply. Recognize that it can be changed.

  As described above, in some embodiments, the user context information obtained at operation 102 may include information provided by the user that indicates the type of information that the user is interested in. For example, the user context information may include a user request for information that the user seeks. Such requests may include users updating news related to a particular topic or topics, advertisements related to one or more product (s), websites, newsletters, email digests, etc. It may be in any suitable form, such as a search query or one or more settings, indicating that it wants to receive information that is just updated on any of the various types. Accordingly, in response to the request, the user is presented with a large set presented to the user based at least in part on the active concept derived from the user's request and the related concept for the active concept selected in operation 108. It is possible to receive the acquired information from among the contents.

  For example, if the user request included a search query, the active concept and the related concept selected in operation 108 generate one or more search queries to provide to one or more search services. Used for. This can be done in any suitable way. For example, the search query may be composed of active concepts and any concepts selected using labels and attributes associated with these concepts. The search query is formed by joining concept labels and attributes from the active concept and any concept of the selected concept using various Boolean operators such as “AND” and “OR”. For example, if the active concept representing the user's search query is “yoga mat” described with reference to FIG. 5F, the concept “sweat-absorbent yoga mat” is Once selected, the search query “yoga mat” AND “sweat-absorbent” can be formed. As another example, if the active concept representing the user's search query is the “recliner” described with reference to FIG. 5D, the concept “massage recliner” And a search query ““ recliner ”OR“ massage recliner ”” is formed. Other more complex search queries may be formed, keywords associated with multiple selected concepts, any disambiguation terms used to identify active concepts, and / or any other User context information can be included. For example, assume that a user is looking for an Italian restaurant at 10:00 pm when renting a car at the airport. The active concept `` Italian Restaurant '' uses `` Pizza '', `` Pasta '', and `` Carbs '' together with geospatial information about the user obtained from user context information Used to select related concepts such as "Italian Restaurant" OR "Pizza" OR "Pasta" OR "carbs" AND "New York It may also be used to construct queries such as “AND” Airport ”AND“ OPEN AFTER 10pm ”.

  These complex types of queries will rarely be constructed by the user. Such a query can be applied to the original query in the content indexed by the search service, even if the content has not been analyzed semantically in advance (eg, before structuring the content). Matches a literal term that does not necessarily have a literal term, thus forming an effective semantic search.

  The search service may be any general search engine. For example, the search service may be any search engine that is publicly accessible via the Internet. As another example, the search service may be a search engine that can be accessed via any computer network other than the Internet. Examples of such search engines include search engines used to search for corporate intranets or other private networks.

  In response to issuing one or more search queries to the search service, a set of search results may be received from the search service. The text (or text fragment) consisting of part of the document or content in the search results can be compared to the active concept and / or concept (s) selected in action 108 and the returned search results are , And can be ranked and / or filtered based on how closely these search results match these concept rules.

  Any of a variety of possible ranking or filtering techniques can be used, but the invention is not limited to this aspect. However, such an approach allows provisioning of content to the user without overwhelming the user with information unrelated to the user. The search service can provide many textual functions such as title, summary, description, tag, hyperlink, etc. for these search results. The text format functionality may, for example, match the search engine's term to the term provided via the concept selected in operation 108 by comparing the term to the text format functionality word of the search engine's search results. Text analysis can be provided as a means for filtering search results. All or partial matches of terms can be used to weight the relevance of individual search results. In some embodiments, the search results returned from the search service do not include identified parts of the content itself, but rather include a list of hyperlinks to these content parts, along with excerpts of each content part. Can do. In such an embodiment, rather than using the provided hyperlinks to search for each piece of content, the list of hyperlinks can be ranked and filtered using relevant excerpts, and this The excerpt can be semantically annotated.

  In some embodiments, the user context information obtained at operation 102 may include information related to the user, such as indicating a type of information that the user is interested in. For example, information about a user can include any information associated with the user on a website such as demographic information, a user's Internet browsing history, social network website, etc. , The user's calculated current position, and the like. Accordingly, the user can be presented with at least partially acquired information based on the active concept derived from the information related to the user and the selected concept.

  For example, the user can be presented with recommendations for personalized products and services based on the active concept and the selected concept. Thereby, the personalized recommendations can reflect the interest of one or more users. Personalized recommendations may include promotional content, including but not limited to advertising for products and / or services. For example, the active concept derived from the user context information indicates that the user is interested in “recliners”. Accordingly, the user can select “recliners” and “massage recliners” which are concepts related to the active concept “recliners” as described with reference to FIG. 5D. You can receive advertisements related to. In this way, the user is not presented with unrelated promotional content.

  As another example, a user can use an online information source (or multiple websites) to obtain information that the user is interested in. The online information source may be any suitable information source, for example, internet portal, intranet portal, news website, social network website, microblog service, blog service, blog reader, shopping It may be a website, a real-time program (feed), or the like. Each such online information source may present any of a number of types of information to the user, including but not limited to news, advertisements, content recommendations, real-time updates (eg, tweets), etc. Can be configured. In this way, when a user uses an online information source, the user is not overwhelmed by irrelevant content.

  Thus, in some embodiments, the active concept and the selected concept can be used to rank, prioritize and / or filter information presented to the user, whereby the user The information presented in can reflect the user's interest. This can be done in any suitable way. For example, any of the information configured for the website to be presented to the user may include one or more textual functions (eg, tags, text, hyperlinks, descriptions, etc.). These textual functions can be compared to any keyword provided by the active concept and the concept selected in action 108. Full or partial matches can be used to weight the relevance of individual terms.

VI. Providing users with information based on multiple knowledge representations As described above, semantic processing techniques can be used to improve the quality of search results returned to users who want to search a target set of content. Specifically, semantic processing techniques can be used to improve the quality of search results using a reference set of content. One set of such techniques is described with reference to FIG. 7, which shows an exemplary process 700 for searching content in a target set of content based on a reference set of content.

  Process 700 begins at operation 702 to obtain a search query from a user. A search query can indicate a user's desire to search for information in a target set of content. As described above, the target set of content can be any suitable set of content, such as a specific website (eg, an e-commerce website, a corporate website, one or more databases). The content may be accessible via a website providing access, an online portal, a corporate intranet, or the like. In one non-limiting example, referring to FIGS. 8A-8C, the case where a user wants to search a medical database for information regarding “Flu Virus” is described. In another non-limiting example, referring to FIGS. 9A-9B, the user can find information regarding how a software program named “BB Messenger” can be used for instant messaging. A case is described in which content that is accessible via a website is to be searched and a search query “BB Messenger Instant Message” is entered. However, it should be appreciated that these are merely exemplary examples, and the target set of content can be any suitable set of content that is searched based on a user query.

  The search query can be received in any of various possible ways. For example, in some embodiments, a search query may be provided from a user's client computer to a server computer that executes software code that performs process 700. For example, as described above with reference to FIG. 2, the user can activate the client computer 202 that executes the application program 204. The application program 204 can send a search query entered by the user to the application program 204 to a server computer 208 that is a computer that executes the process 700.

  Further, in some embodiments, user context information associated with the user can be obtained at operation 702 of process 700. Any of a number of types of user context information is obtained including, but not limited to, any of the types of user context information described above. User context information can be obtained in any suitable manner, for example, in a similar manner such that a search query is obtained and / or the method described above for obtaining user context information. Can be obtained in any other suitable way including any of the above.

  Next, the process 700 proceeds to operation 704 such that concepts representing the search query obtained in operation 702 and optionally user context information are identified in the reference knowledge representation. As described above, the reference knowledge representation may be any suitable type of KR, such as a semantic network, and may represent knowledge associated with content in a reference set of content. The reference set of content can be any suitable set of content, and can be, for example, content in an online information repository such as Wikipedia or any other suitable reference corpus or corpora.

  Concepts representing search queries and optionally user context information can be identified in the reference knowledge representation in any suitable manner. For example, to determine whether an alphanumeric string representing a search query and optionally user context information can have at least a partial match between the alphanumeric string and at least one concept. To one or more concept labels associated with the concepts in the reference knowledge representation. As described above, when it is determined whether or not there is a match between any pair of character strings to be compared, a specific word (eg, “and (and)”, “the (the)” , “Of”, etc.) can be ignored. For clarity, the concept identified in operation 704 of process 700 is referred to as concept “R”.

  An example of how the concept R is identified in the reference knowledge representation is shown in FIG. 8A. The user's search query “Flu Virus” exactly matches the label of the concept 802 in the semantic network 801 that is the reference knowledge expression. Although FIG. 8A shows only three concepts within the semantic network 801, this has been done for clarity of illustration so that the semantic network 801 includes one or more other concepts. Note that Another example of identifying the concept R is shown in FIG. 9A, where the user's search query “BB Messenger Instant Message” is within one or more reference corpora 908 (eg, Wikipedia, WordNet, etc.). Partially matches the label “instant message” of the concept 916 in the semantic network 910 that is a reference knowledge representation derived from the content of Similar to the semantic network 801, the semantic network 910 may include one or more concepts not explicitly shown in FIG. 9A for clarity.

  Process 700 then proceeds to operation 706 so that a concept associated with concept R identified in operation 704 is obtained. This can be done in any suitable manner, and in some embodiments can be done in any of the ways described with respect to operation 106 of process 100. For example, a concept related to concept R may be obtained based at least in part on the structure of the reference semantic network that includes concept R. The structure of the reference semantic network can be used to identify concepts related to concepts R that exist in the reference semantic network. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 8A, concept 806 is connected to concept 802 (ie, concept R) via an “is-a” edge, thus operation 706 of process 700. , The concept can be identified as a concept related to the concept R. Additionally or alternatively, the structure of the reference semantic network can be used to synthesize concepts related to concept R that do not initially exist in the semantic network. Any of the synthesized concepts can be used to extend the semantic network. Also, as described above with respect to operation 106 of process 100, concepts related to concept R can be achieved by performing one or more operations on the graph structure of the semantic network including search operations, additive operations, and / or replacement operations. Can be acquired.

  Process 700 then proceeds to operation 708 such that concepts representing the search query obtained in operation 702 and optionally user context information are identified in the target knowledge representation. As described above, the target knowledge representation may be any suitable type of KR, such as a semantic network, and may represent knowledge associated with content in the target set of content. The target set of content can be any suitable set of content, for example providing access to a particular website (eg, e-commerce website, corporate website, one or more databases). The content may be accessible via a website, an online portal, a corporate intranet, or the like.

  Concepts representing search queries and optionally user context information may be identified in the target semantic network in any suitable manner. For example, the concept can be identified in a similar manner as described with respect to operation 704, where an alphanumeric string representing the search query and optionally user context information matches at least partially. To find, it may be compared to a concept label in the target semantic network. In fact, as mentioned above, the search query may contain one or more terms that appear infrequently in the target set of content, so an alphanumeric string containing the user's search query and the target semantic network Does not exactly match any of the concept labels. Because the target semantic network represents knowledge associated with a target set of content, the user's search query may not accurately correspond to the concepts in the target semantic network. For clarity, the concept identified in operation 704 of process 700 is referred to as concept “T”.

  An example of how the concept T is identified in the reference knowledge representation is shown in FIG. 8B, where the user's search query “Flu Virus” is the target knowledge representation. Partially matches the label of the concept 812 (“Virus”) in the semantic network 803. Although only four concepts are shown in the semantic network 803 in FIG. 8B, this is done for clarity of illustration so that the semantic network 803 includes one or more other concepts. Please note that Another example of identifying the concept T is shown in FIG. 9A, where the user's search query “BB Messenger Instant Message” is the user attempting to search via the provided search query. It partially matches the label “BB Messenger” of the concept 912 in the semantic network 906 which is the target knowledge representation derived from the content. Similar to the semantic network 803, the semantic network 906 may include one or more concepts not explicitly shown in FIG. 9A for clarity.

  Process 700 then proceeds to operation 708 so that a concept associated with concept T identified in operation 706 is obtained. This can be done in any suitable manner, and in some embodiments can be done in any of the ways described with respect to operation 706. For example, a concept related to concept T may be obtained based at least in part on the structure of the target semantic network that includes concept T. The structure of the target semantic network can be used to identify concepts related to the concept T that exists in the target semantic network. Additionally or alternatively, the structure of the target semantic network can be used to synthesize concepts related to concept T that do not initially exist in the semantic network. Any of the synthesized concepts can be used to extend the target semantic network. Also, as described above with reference to operation 706, the concepts associated with concept T perform one or more operations on the graph structure of the target semantic network, including search operations, additive operations, and / or replacement operations. Can be obtained. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 9A, concept 914 “BB messenger buzzer” is synthesized from concept T (“BB messenger”) and concept “buzzer” in the target semantic network via an additive operation. can do.

  Next, the process 700 is such that the reference knowledge representation and the target knowledge representation, each extended with the concepts synthesized in operations 706 and 710, are combined to create a merged knowledge representation. Proceed to 712. This merged knowledge representation can then be used to identify concepts that are semantically related to the user's search query and optionally user context information. The merged knowledge representation can be created in any suitable way. In some embodiments, the reference knowledge representation and the target knowledge representation may be merged around one or more concepts that have these KRs in common. For example, as shown in FIG. 8C, semantic networks 801 and 803 are merged around a common concept “Influenza Virus” to form a merged semantic network 805. As another example, as shown in FIG. 9B, semantic networks 906 and 910 are merged around a common concept “social network” to form a semantic network 922.

  In some embodiments, a semantic network merged with another semantic network is pruned to remove one or more concepts from the semantic network before being merged, thereby creating one or more Pruned concepts can be prevented from being represented in merged semantic networks. For example, concept 920 (“advertisement”) is pruned from semantic network 910 prior to the merge step. Additionally or alternatively, one or more concepts can be pruned from the merged semantic network after the merge step. Any suitable concept or concepts may be pruned. For example, in some embodiments, concepts that are considered unrelated to a user's search query and optionally user context information can be pruned.

  After the merged knowledge representation is created at operation 712, process 700 obtains concepts related to the user's search query and optionally user context information associated with the user using the merged knowledge representation. Proceed to 714 so that it can be done. This can be done in any suitable manner, for example, according to the techniques described with respect to operations 104-106 of process 100. In this way, active concepts representing the user's search query and optionally user context information are identified in the merged knowledge representation, or using the techniques described with reference to operation 104 and process 300. It can be generated to augment the merged knowledge representation (thus creating a user-specific KR). Subsequently, one or more concepts that are semantically related to the active concept are identified based at least in part on the structure of the semantic network merged using the techniques described above with reference to operation 106 of process 100. can do.

  Process 700 then proceeds to operation 716 such that a score is calculated for a concept that is semantically related to the active concept, such as obtained in operation 714. The score can be calculated in any suitable manner, for example, using any of the techniques described with reference to operation 108 of process 100. Using such an approach, the score calculated for the concept obtained at act 714 depends on the structure of the merged semantic network obtained at act 712. One or more of the scored concepts can be selected based on the score in any of the ways described above with reference to operation 108 of process 100.

  Next, the process 700 can be used so that the concept selected in operation 718 composes a search query or queries, the constructed query or queries being published to the search service, Proceed to operations 718-722 so that the search results are processed and provided to the user. These acts can be performed using any of the techniques described above with reference to operation 110 of process 100. For example, the search query can be composed of the active concept and any concept selected in operation 716 using labels and attributes associated with these selected concepts.

  It should be appreciated that process 700 is merely exemplary and any of a number of variations of process 700 can be implemented. For example, in the illustrated embodiment, one or more concepts may be combined before the reference and target semantic networks are merged in operations 706 and 710. However, in other embodiments, the composition of new concepts may be performed only after the merge step. As another example, process 700 is described in the context of two knowledge representations (reference KR and target KR). However, in other embodiments, multiple reference knowledge representations can be used to improve the quality of search results returned to users searching for a target set of content. This can be done in any suitable way. For example, the process 700 is adapted to identify the reference concepts R1, R2, R3, etc. and repeat operations 704 and 706 for each knowledge representation to obtain concepts that are semantically related to these related concepts. can do. A merge operation then merges the plurality of reference knowledge representations with the target knowledge representation.

VII. Additional Implementation Details The computer devices described above (eg, the client computer and server shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B) can be implemented in any of a variety of ways. FIG. 10 is a block diagram of an exemplary computer device 1000 that can be used to implement any of the computer devices described above.

  The computing device 1000 can include one or more processors (eg, a microprocessor) 1001 and one or more tangible, non-transitory computer readable storage media (eg, memory 1003). Memory 1003 may store computer instructions in a tangible, non-transitory computer readable storage medium that performs any of the functions described above. The processor (s) 1001 can be coupled to the memory 1003 and can execute computer instructions to implement and execute functions. Computer device 1000 can also include a network input / output (I / O) interface 1005 that allows the computer device to communicate with other computers (eg, via a network). In some embodiments, the computing device may also include one or more user I / O interfaces such that the computer provides output to the user and receives input from the user. User I / O interfaces can include devices such as keyboards, mice, microphones, display devices (eg, monitors or touch screens), speakers, cameras, and / or various other types of I / O devices. .

  The above-described embodiments of the present invention can be implemented in any of a number of ways. For example, embodiments can be implemented using hardware, software, or a combination thereof. When implemented in software, the software code may be implemented in any suitable processor or collection of processors (eg, a single microprocessor or a set of processors), regardless of whether the software code is provided on a single computer or distributed among multiple computers. It can be embodied as stored program instructions that are executed on a plurality of microprocessors).

  It should be understood that the computer may be embodied in any of a number of forms, such as a rack mount computer, a desktop computer, a laptop computer, or a tablet computer. A computer may also be embodied in devices that are not generally considered computers, but may be a personal digital assistant (PDA), smartphone, tablet, reader, or any other suitable portable or fixed electronic device. Can be realized by a computer having an appropriate processing capability.

  A computer can also have one or more input / output devices. These devices can be used in particular to present a user interface. Examples of output devices that can be used to provide a user interface include a printer or display screen for visually presenting the output, and a speaker or other sound generator for presenting the output audibly. Including the device. Examples of input devices that can be used for the user interface include keyboards, microphones, and pointing devices such as mice, touchpads, and digitized tablets.

  Such a computer may include one or more of any suitable forms, including a local area network (LAN) such as a corporate network, or a network such as an intelligent network (IN) or a wide area network (WAN) such as the Internet. Can be interconnected by network. Such networks may be based on any suitable technology, operate according to any suitable protocol, and can include wireless networks, wired networks, and / or fiber optic networks.

  The various methods or processes outlined herein can be encoded as software executable on one or more processors using any of a variety of operating systems or platforms. Further, such software can be written using any of a number of suitable programming languages and / or programming or scripting tools and is executable on a virtual machine or suitable framework. It can also be compiled as machine language code or intermediate code.

  In this regard, the various inventive concepts are related to at least one non-transitory tangible computer readable storage medium (eg, computer memory, one or more floppy disks, compact disk, optical disk, magnetic tape, flash It may be realized as a memory, a field programmable gate array, or other semiconductor device circuit configuration). When the medium is executed on one or more computers or other processors, the item (s) encoded with one or more programs perform the various processes of the present invention. A non-transitory computer readable medium or a plurality of these media may be any suitable program for implementing various aspects of the invention, as described above, for a program or programs stored on the medium. It may be portable so that it can be loaded into computer resources.

  The term “program” or “software” refers to any type of computer code or computer execution that can be used to program a computer or other processor that implements various aspects of the embodiments as described above. Used herein in a general sense to refer to a set of possible instructions. Further, according to one aspect, the one or more computer programs in performing the methods of the present invention need not reside on a single computer or processor, but may vary to implement various aspects of the present invention. It should be understood that it may be distributed modularly among different computers or processors.

  Computer-executable instructions may be in many forms, such as program modules, executed by one or more computers or other devices. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, items, components, data structures, etc. that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. Typically, the functionality of the program modules can be combined or distributed as desired in various embodiments.

  The data structure can also be stored in any suitable form on a non-transitory tangible computer readable storage media article. For ease of explanation, the data structure may be shown as having related fields via locations within the data structure. Such a relationship can also be achieved by assigning a non-transitory tangible computer readable medium location that conveys the relationship between fields to storage for the field. However, any suitable mechanism may be used to establish relationships between information in the fields of the data structure, including the use of pointers, tags or other mechanisms that establish relationships between data elements. it can.

  Also, the various inventive concepts may be embodied as one or more methods in which multiple embodiments (eg, processes 100, 300) are provided. The actions performed as part of the method may be ordered in any suitable way. Thus, the embodiments are shown in a different order than shown, including performing several operations simultaneously, even though they are shown as sequential operations in the exemplary embodiment, or vice versa. It can be configured to be executed.

  It should be understood that all conventions used and defined herein establish dictionary definitions, document conventions incorporated by reference, and / or the normal meaning of the defined terms.

  As used herein, the indefinite articles “a” and “an” should be understood to mean “at least one” unless there are specific indications to the contrary.

  As used herein, the phrase “at least one” referring to a list of one or more elements shall mean at least one element selected from any one or more elements in the list of elements. It is to be understood that it need not include at least one of every element specifically displayed in the list of elements and does not exclude any combination of elements in the list of elements. This provision may also be present other than the element specifically identified in the list of elements to which the phrase “at least one” refers, regardless of whether or not these elements are specifically identified. Specify that there are other possibilities. Thus, as a non-limiting example, “at least one of A and B” (or equivalently, at least one of A or B, or equivalently, at least one of A and / or B) ) Means, in one embodiment, optionally including one or more A, but B is absent (and optionally includes elements other than B). In another embodiment, at least one means optionally including one or more B, but A is absent (and optionally includes elements other than A). In yet another embodiment, at least one is meant to optionally include one or more A, and optionally include one or more B (and optionally include other elements).

  As used herein, the phrase “and / or” should be understood to mean “either or both” of the elements so conjoined, that is, in some cases exist as a conjunction, In other cases it exists as a logical sum. Multiple elements listed with “and / or” should be construed in the same way, ie, “one or more” of the elements so conjoined. Regardless of whether or not these elements are specifically identified, other elements can optionally be present other than those specifically identified by the “and / or” clause. Thus, as a non-limiting example, the meaning of “and / or B” when used in connection with an open-ended language such as “comprising”, in one embodiment, Only (optionally including elements other than B). In another embodiment, only B is meant (optionally including elements other than A). In yet another embodiment, it means both A and B (optionally including other elements).

  As used herein, “or” should be understood to have the same meaning as “and / or” as defined above. For example, when delimiting items in a list, “or” or “and / or” should be construed as inclusive, ie include at least one, but multiple elements or lists of elements Contains one or more and optionally includes additional unlisted items.

  The expressions and terms used herein are for illustrative purposes and should not be considered limiting. The terms “including”, “comprising”, “having”, “containing”, “involving” and the use of these conjugations are listed below. And includes additional items.

Although several embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail, various changes and modifications will readily occur to those skilled in the art. Such changes and modifications are intended to be within the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, the foregoing description is by way of example only and is not intended as limiting.

Claims (20)

A method of providing information to at least one user, the method comprising:
Using at least one computer hardware processor,
Receiving user context information associated with the at least one user;
Identifying or generating a first concept representing at least a portion of the user context information in a semantic network, wherein after performing the identifying or generating step, the semantic network includes: Identifying or generating including a first node representing a concept;
Synthesizing a second concept that is semantically related to the first concept, the synthesizing step being based on the first concept and at least one other concept in the semantic network. And extending the semantic network with a second node representing a second concept, the second node being different from the first node, and combining.
Providing information to the at least one user; and
The information is selected by using a first concept and a second concept that is semantically related to the first concept;
Method. The step of synthesizing the second concept is:
Identifying in the semantic network a third concept that co-defines a fourth concept in the semantic network together with a first concept or a parent concept or sibling concept of the first concept;
Combining the first concept and the third concept to synthesize the second concept,
The method of claim 1. The step of synthesizing the second concept is:
Identifying a set of one or more attributes of the first concept;
An attribute that has an attribute that is included in one or more attribute sets of the first concept, or that is included in the one or more attribute sets of the first concept by an “is-a” relationship Identifying in the semantic network a third concept connected to
Combining the first concept and the third concept to synthesize the second concept,
The method of claim 1. The step of synthesizing the second concept is:
Identifying a set of one or more attributes of the first concept;
Exchanging a first attribute in the set of one or more attributes of the first concept with a third concept from the semantic network to synthesize a second concept;
The method of claim 1. User-specific context information may be a search query provided by the user, demographic information associated with the user, information from the user's browsing history, information entered by the user, and / or highlighted by the user Including at least one of the generated information,
The method of claim 1. The information includes one or more advertisements and / or one or more product recommendations from one or more other users,
The method of claim 1. The information includes content that appears on or is accessible through a website,
The method of claim 1. A system for providing information to at least one user, the system comprising:
At least one computer hardware processor;
At least one non-transitory computer-readable medium storing processor-executable instructions that, when executed by the at least one computer hardware processor, cause the at least one computer hardware processor to: And the above matters are:
Receiving user context information associated with the at least one user;
Identifying or generating a first concept representing at least a portion of the user context information in the semantic network, after performing the identifying or generating, the semantic network includes: Identifying or generating a first node representing a concept;
Synthesizing a second concept that is semantically related to the first concept, the synthesizing being based on the first concept and at least one other concept in the semantic network. And extending the semantic network with a second node representing a second concept, wherein the second node is different from the first node, combining
Providing information to the at least one user;
The information is selected by using a first concept and a second concept that is semantically related to the first concept;
system. Combining the second concept is
Identifying in the semantic network a third concept co-defining a fourth concept in the semantic network together with a first concept or a parent concept or sibling concept of the first concept;
Combining the first concept and the third concept to synthesize the second concept;
including,
The system according to claim 8. Combining the second concept is
Identifying a set of one or more attributes of the first concept;
An attribute that has an attribute that is included in one or more attribute sets of the first concept, or that is included in the one or more attribute sets of the first concept by an “is-a” relationship Identifying in the semantic network a third concept connected to
Combining the first concept and the third concept to synthesize the second concept;
including,
The system according to claim 8. Combining the second concept is
Identifying a set of one or more attributes of the first concept;
Exchanging a first attribute in the set of one or more attributes of the first concept with a third concept from the semantic network to synthesize a second concept;
including,
The system according to claim 8. User-specific context information may be a search query provided by the user, demographic information associated with the user, information from the user's browsing history, information entered by the user, and / or highlighted by the user Including at least one of the generated information,
The system according to claim 8. The information includes one or more advertisements and / or one or more product recommendations from one or more other users,
The system according to claim 8. The information includes content that appears on or is accessible through a website,
The system according to claim 8. On at least one non-transitory computer readable medium storing processor-executable instructions that, when executed by at least one computer hardware processor, cause the at least one computer hardware processor to: And the above matter
Receiving user context information associated with the at least one user;
Identifying or generating a first concept representing at least a portion of the user context information in the semantic network, after performing the identifying or generating, the semantic network includes: Identifying or generating a first node representing a concept;
Synthesizing a second concept that is semantically related to the first concept, the synthesizing being based on the first concept and at least one other concept in the semantic network. And extending the semantic network with a second node representing a second concept, wherein the second node is different from the first node, combining
Providing information to the at least one user;
The information is selected by using a first concept and a second concept that is semantically related to the first concept;
A non-transitory computer readable medium. Combining the second concept is
Identifying in the semantic network a third concept that co-defines a fourth concept in the semantic network together with a first concept or a parent concept or sibling concept of the first concept;
Combining the first concept and the third concept to synthesize the second concept,
The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15. Combining the second concept is
Identifying a set of one or more attributes of the first concept;
An attribute that has an attribute that is included in one or more attribute sets of the first concept, or that is included in the one or more attribute sets of the first concept by an “is-a” relationship Identifying in the semantic network a third concept connected to
Combining the first concept and the third concept to synthesize the second concept,
The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15. Combining the second concept is
Identifying a set of one or more attributes of the first concept;
Exchanging a first attribute in the set of one or more attributes of the first concept with a third concept from the semantic network to synthesize the second concept;
The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15. The information includes one or more advertisements and / or one or more product recommendations from one or more other users,
The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15. The information includes content that appears on or is accessible through a website,
The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15.

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