Method, apparatus, and program product for efficiently adding entities and relationships in a comprehension state of a collection of information
View Patent ↗Aspects of the disclosed technology present a workspace window responsive to a relationship data structure that represents a comprehension state including a presentation set of an ordered set of text strings from an electronic document. The presentation set includes one or more identified strings. The workspace window can then receive a quick-click command invocation on the one or more identified strings and modifies the relationship data structure by adding an entity/relationship object to the relationship data structure responsive to the quick-click command invocation and the one or more identified strings. The application relates to sensemaking or maintaining a comprehension state of a document collection, by recording evidence, spatial hypertext, automatic highlighting, automating inferencing, reading recommendations, and reading through multiple documents.
1. A computer controlled method comprising:
presenting a workspace window responsive to a relationship data structure that represents relationships between pieces of information;
presenting a presentation set of an ordered set of text strings from an electronic document, said presentation set including one or more identified strings;
receiving a quick-click command invocation on said one or more identified strings by said workspace window;
modifying said relationship data structure by adding an entity/relationship object to said relationship data structure responsive to said quick-click command invocation and said one or more identified strings;
detecting a drag-and-drop operation dragging a first instance representation to a drop point;
combining the first instance representation with a second instance representation, the second instance representation determined to be nearest to the drop point and within a threshold distance from the drop point, wherein the threshold distance is a multidimensional vector, a selection of strength of a relationship being responsive to weighted values of the multidimensional vector's elements, so that:
if the nearest instance representation is an entity object, a new composite object is created that includes the entity object and an entity/relationship object represented by the dragged instance representation, and
if the nearest instance representation is a first composite object, the entity/relationship object represented by the dragged instance representation is added to the first composite object.
2. The computer controlled method of claim 1 , wherein said entity/relationship object includes a reference to said electronic document.
3. The computer controlled method of claim 2 , wherein said relationship data structure further comprises a second composite object, the method further comprising:
adding said entity/relationship object to said second composite object; and
storing said reference to said electronic document from said entity/relationship object in said second composite object.
4. The computer controlled method of claim 2 , wherein whether the second instance representation is within the threshold distance is determined by a compute-distance-to-nearest-instance procedure based on a calculated distance vector.
5. The computer controlled method of claim 1 , wherein said entity/relationship object is an entity object that incorporates at least one of a user-selected subset of an ordered set of text strings from said electronic document.
6. The computer controlled method of claim 1 , further comprising:
identifying one or more identified strings within an ordered set of text strings from said electronic document, and wherein said entity/relationship object incorporates at least one of said one or more identified strings.
7. The computer controlled method of claim 6 , wherein said entity/relationship object is an entity object and one of said one or more identified strings intersects a user-positioned cursor.
8. The computer controlled method of claim 6 , wherein said entity/relationship object corresponds to a second composite object and said one or more identified strings intersect a user-selected range of said ordered set of text strings.
9. The computer controlled method of claim 8 , wherein said user-selected range intersects at least one sentence having a first identified string and a second identified string, the method further comprising:
automatically determining one or more relationships between said first identified string and said second identified string responsive to linguistic processing of said user-selected range; and
inserting a belief statement object responsive to automatically determining said one or more relationships into said relationship data structure.
10. An apparatus having a central processing unit (CPU) and a memory coupled to said CPU comprising:
a user interface logic configured to present a workspace window responsive to a relationship data structure that represents relationships between pieces of information;
the user interface logic further configured to present a presentation set of an ordered set of text strings from an electronic document, said presentation set including one or more identified strings;
a quick-click command invocation logic configured to receive a quick-click command invocation on said one or more identified strings from the user interface logic;
a relationship space edit logic configured to modify said relationship data structure by adding an entity/relationship object to said relationship data structure responsive to said quick-click command invocation logic and said one or more identified strings;
a detecting logic configured to detect a drag-and-drop operation dragging a first instance representation to a drop point;
a combining logic configured to combine the first instance representation with a second instance representation, the second instance representation determined to be nearest to the drop point and within a threshold distance from the drop point, wherein the threshold distance is a multidimensional vector, a selection of strength of a relationship being responsive to weighted values of the multidimensional vector's elements, so that:
if the nearest instance representation is an entity object, a new composite object is created that includes the entity object and an entity/relationship object represented by the dragged instance representation, and
if the nearest instance representation is a first composite object, the entity/relationship object represented by the dragged instance representation is added to the composite object.
11. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein said entity/relationship object includes a reference to said electronic document.
12. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein said relationship data structure further comprises a second composite object and the relationship space edit logic further comprises:
a first update logic configured to add said entity/relationship object to said second composite object and further configured to store said reference to said electronic document from said entity/relationship object in said composite object.
13. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein said relationship data structure further comprises a second composite object that includes a reference to said electronic document and the relationship space edit logic further comprises:
a comparison logic configured to match said entity/relationship object and said second composite object with respect to their respective references to said electronic document; and
a first update logic configured to add said entity/relationship object to said second composite object responsive to the comparison logic.
14. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein said entity/relationship object is an entity object that incorporates at least one of a user-selected subset of an ordered set of text strings from said electronic document.
15. The apparatus of claim 10 , further comprising:
a rule logic configured to identify one or more identified strings within an ordered set of text strings from said electronic document, and wherein said entity/relationship object incorporates at least one of said one or more identified strings.
16. The apparatus of claim 15 , wherein said entity/relationship object is an entity object and the user interface logic is further configured to detect when a presentation of one of said one or more identified strings intersects a user-positioned cursor.
17. The apparatus of claim 15 , wherein said entity/relationship object corresponds to a second composite object and the user interface logic is further configured to detect when a presentation of said one or more identified strings intersect a user-selected range of said ordered set of text strings.
18. The apparatus of claim 17 , wherein said user-selected range intersects at least one sentence having a first identified string and a second identified string, the user interface logic further configured to automatically determine one or more relationships between said first identified string and said second identified string responsive to a linguistic processing logic configured to process said user-selected range; and to invoke the relationship space edit logic to insert a belief statement object into said relationship data structure responsive to the linguistic processing logic.
19. A computer program product comprising:
a computer-readable recording medium providing instructions that, when executed by a computer, cause said computer to perform a method comprising:
presenting a workspace window responsive to a relationship data structure that represents relationships between pieces of information;
presenting a presentation set of an ordered set of text strings from an electronic document, said presentation set including one or more identified strings;
receiving a quick-click command invocation on said one or more identified strings by said workspace window; and
modifying said relationship data structure by adding an entity/relationship object to said relationship data structure responsive to said quick-click command invocation and said one or more identified strings;
detecting a drag-and-drop operation dragging a first instance representation to a drop point;
combining the first instance representation with a second instance representation, the second instance representation determined to be nearest to the drop point and within a threshold distance from the drop point, wherein the threshold distance is a multidimensional vector, a selection of strength of a relationship being responsive to weighted values of the multidimensional vector's elements, so that:
if the nearest instance representation is an entity object, a new composite object is created that includes the entity object and an entity/relationship object represented by the dragged instance representation, and
if the nearest instance representation is a first composite object, the entity/relationship object represented by the dragged instance representation is added to the composite object.
20. The computer program product of claim 19 , wherein said entity/relationship object includes a reference to said electronic document.
21. The computer program product of claim 20 , wherein said relationship data structure further comprises a second composite object and further comprising:
adding said entity/relationship object to said second composite object; and
storing said reference to said electronic document from said entity/relationship object in said second composite object.
22. The computer program product of claim 20 , wherein said relationship data structure further comprises a second composite object that includes a reference to said electronic document and further comprising:
matching said entity/relationship object and said second composite object with respect to their respective references to said electronic document;
adding said entity/relationship object to said second composite object.
23. The computer program product of claim 19 , wherein said entity/relationship object is an entity object that incorporates at least one of a user-selected subset of an ordered set of text strings from said electronic document.
24. The computer program product of claim 19 , further comprising:
identifying one or more identified strings within an ordered set of text strings from said electronic document, and wherein said entity/relationship object incorporates at least one of said one or more identified strings.
25. The computer program product of claim 24 , wherein said entity/relationship object is an entity object and one of said one or more identified strings intersects a user-positioned cursor.
26. The computer program product of claim 24 , wherein said entity/relationship object corresponds to a second composite object and said one or more identified strings intersect a user-selected range of said ordered set of text strings.
27. The computer program product of claim 26 , wherein said user-selected range intersects at least one sentence having a first identified string and a second identified string, the method further comprising:
automatically determining one or more relationships between said first identified string and said second identified string responsive to linguistic processing of said user-selected range; and
inserting a belief statement object responsive to automatically determining said one or more relationships into said relationship data structure.