IP Library › Granted Patent US 9,773,054
Granted Patent B2
US 9,773,054 · App. 14/644,771 · Granted Sep 26, 2017

Inverted table for storing and querying conceptual indices

Inventors: Michele M. Franceschini (White Plains, NY); Luis A. Lastras-Montano (Cortlandt Manor, NY); Livio B. Soares (New York, NY); Mark N. Wegman (Ossining, NY)
Assignee: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
G06F17/30628G06F17/30687G06F17/30864G06F17/30958
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 9,773,054
App. No.
14/644,771
Granted
Sep 26, 2017
Kind
B2
Abstract

According to an aspect, storing and querying conceptual indices (CIs) includes creating a conceptual inverted index (CII) from the CIs. The CII includes CII entries, each of which corresponds to a concept in a concept graph. Creating the CII includes populating each entry with pointers to documents selected from the CIs having likelihoods of being related to the concept that are greater than a threshold value, and the corresponding likelihoods. An aspect also includes receiving a query that includes a concept in the concept graph, and generating query results from a search that include the row at least a subset of the pointers to documents. Each of the CIs is associated with a corresponding document and includes a CI entry for each concept in the concept graph, and each of the CI entries specifies a value indicating a likelihood that the document is related to the concept in the concept graph.

Claims (21)

1. A method, comprising:

creating a conceptual inverted index (CII) based on conceptual indices (CIs), the CII including CII entries, each of which corresponds to a separate concept in a concept graph, the creating including for each CII entry:

with respect to the concept corresponding to the CII entry, populating the CII entry with:

pointers to documents selected from the CIs having likelihoods of being related to the concept that are greater than a threshold value; and

the corresponding likelihoods of the documents;

receiving a query that includes one of the concepts in the concept graph as a search term;

searching the CII for the search term; and

generating query results from the searching, the query results including at least a subset of the pointers to documents;

creating an explanations index that indicates for each of the documents pointed to by the pointers included in the query results, a likelihood that each of one or more concepts extracted from the document is related to the search term; and

generating an explanation of the query results based on the explanations index, the explanation including a summary of a relevance of the query results to the query,

wherein each of the CIs is associated with a corresponding one of the documents and includes a CI entry for each concept in the concept graph, and each of the CI entries specifies a value indicating a likelihood that the one of the documents is related to the concept in the concept graph.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the query results include a pointer to a document that does not explicitly mention the search term.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one CI entry indicates a document having a likelihood of being related to a concept in the concept graph that is not mentioned in the document.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the concept not mentioned in the document is related to the concept included in the query.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the query results only include pointers to documents having likelihoods greater than a second threshold of being related to the concept included in the search term.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the query further includes one or more additional concepts as the search term.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein each document is associated with a valid version number and the generating query results includes verifying that any pointers to documents correspond to documents that match the associated valid version numbers.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the method further comprises removing pointers to documents that do not match the associated valid version numbers.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein a document is related to a concept in the concept graph if a concept extracted from the document is connected to the concept in the concept graph via a path in the concept graph.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the summary includes an excerpt of text.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the summary includes contents of the explanations index.

Assignments (1)
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Mar 11, 2015
From: FRANCESCHINI, MICHELE M.; LASTRAS-MONTANO, LUIS A.; SOARES, LIVIO B.; WEGMAN, MARK N.
To: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
Reel/Frame 035141/0212 →
Continuity (2)
Continuation 14330438 · Jul 14, 2014
Related Publication 20160012125A1 · Jan 14, 2016