text:
|Publication number
|Publication type
|Application number
|Publication date
|Oct 23, 2001
|Filing date
|Nov 19, 1998
|Priority date
|Apr 4, 1996
|Fee status
|Publication number
|Andrew K. Lang, Donald M. Kosak
|Original Assignee
|Lycos, Inc.
|Export Citation
|BiBTeX, EndNote, RefMan
|Patent Citations (2), Referenced by (264), Classifications (22), Legal Events (9)
|External Links: USPTO, USPTO Assignment, Espacenet
This application is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 08/627,436 now U.S. Pat. No. 5,867,799, filed on Apr. 4, 1996, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
The present invention relates to information processing systems for large or massive information networks, such as the internet, and more particularly to such information systems in which an information filter structure uses collaborative data in determining the value of a document or other information entity (informon) to a user.
In the operation of the internet, a countless number of informons are available for downloading from any of at least thousands of sites for consideration by a user at the user's location. A user typicaly connects to a portal or other web site having a search capability, and thereafter enters a particular query, i.e., a request for informons relevant to a topic, a field of interest, etc. Thereafter, the search site typically employs a "spider" scanning system and a content-based filter in a search engine to search the internet and find informons which match the query. This process is basically a pre-search process in which matching informons are found, at the time of initiating a search for the user's query, by comparing informons in an "informon data base" to the user's query.
The return list of matching informons can be very extensive according to the subject of the query and the breadth of the query. More specific queries typically result in shorter return lists. In some cases, the search site may also be structured to find web sites which probably have stored informons matching the entered query.
Colaborative data can be made available to assist in informon rating when a user actually representation of the value of the considered informon to the user.
In the patent application which is parent to this continuation-in-part application, i.e. Ser. No. 08/627,436, filed by the present inventors on Apr. 4, 1996, and hereby incorporated by reference, an advanced collaborative/content-based information filter system is employed to provide superior filtering in the process of finding and rating informons which match a user's query. The information filter structure in this system integrates content-based filtering and collaborative filtering to determine relevancy of informons received from various sites in the internet or other network. In operation, a user enters a query and a corresponding "wire" is established, i.e., the query is profiled in storage on a content basis and adaptively updated over time, and informons obtained from the network are compared to the profile for relevancy and ranking. A continuously operating "spider" scans the network to find informons which are received and processed for relevancy to the individual user's wire and for relevancy to wires established by numerous other users.
The integrated filter system compares received informons to the individual user's query profile data, combined with collaborative data, and ranks, in order of value, informons found to be relevant. The system maintains the ranked informons in a stored list from which the individual user can select any listed informon for consideration
As the system continues to feed the individual user's "wire", the stored relevant informon list typically changes due to factors including a return of new and more relevant informons, adjustments in the user's query, feedback evaluations by the user for considered informons, and updatings in collaborative feedback data. Received informons are similarly processed for other users' wires established in the information filter system. Thus, the integrated information filter system compares network informons to multiple users' queries to find matching informons for various users' wires over the course of time, whereas conventional search engines initiate a search in response to an individual user's query and use content-based filtering to compare the query to accessed network informons to find matching informons during a limited search time period.
The present invention is directed to a collaborative/content-based filtering system which processes network-received informons to find relevant informons through "agent mind melding", i.e., an evaluation process in which informons are valued by content-based profile data of an individual user and related collaborative data including at least selective content-based profile data of other users. This system is generally described in the integrated collaborative/content-based filter disclosed in the parent application, and is disclosed in further detail in this continuation-in-part application.
FIG. 1 is an diagrammatic representation of an embodiment of an information filtering apparatus according to the present invention.
FIG. 2 is an diagrammatic representation of another embodiment of an information filtering apparatus according to the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a flow diagram for an embodiment of an information filtering method according to the present invention.
FIG. 4 is a flow diagram for another embodiment of an information filtering method according to the present invention.
FIG. 5 is a flow diagram for yet another embodiment of an information filtering method according to the present invention.
FIG. 6 is an illustration of a three-component-input model and profile with associated predictors.
FIG. 7 is an illustration of a mindpool hierarchy.
FIG. 8 is a functional block diagram illustrating an agent mind melding system embodied in accordance with the invention.
FIG. 9 is a generalized logic flow diagram for the agent mind melding system.
The invention disclosed herein is embodied in an apparatus and method for information filtering in a computer system receiving a data stream from a computer network, in which entities of information relevant to the user, or "informons," are extracted from the data stream using content-based and collaborative filtering. The information filtering is both interactive and distributed in structure and method. It is interactive in that communication is substantially bi-directional at each level of the filter. It is distributed in that all or part of the information filter can include a purely hierarchical (up-and-down/parent-child) structure or method, a purely parallel (peer-to-peer) structure or method, or a combination of hierachical and parallel structures and method.
As used herein, the term "informon" comprehends an information entity of potential or actual interest to a particular user. In general, informons can be heterogenous in nature and can be all or part of a textual, a visual, or an audio entity. Also, informons can be composed of a combination of the aforementioned entities, thereby being a multimedia entity. Furthermore, an informon can be an entity of patterned data, such as a data file containing a digital representation of signals and can be a combination of any of the previously-mentioned entities. Although some of the data in a data stream, including informons, may be included in an informon, not all data is relevant to a user, and is not within the definition of an informon. By analogy, an informon may be considered to be a "signal," and the total data stream may be considered to be "signal+noise." Therefore, an information filtering apparatus is analogous to other types of signal filters in that it is designed to separate the "signal" from the "noise."
Also as used herein, the term "user" is an individual in communication with the network. Because an individual user can be interested in multiple categories of information, the user can be considered to be multiple clients each having a unique profile, or set of attributes. Each member client profile, then, is representative of a particular group of user preferences. Collectively, the member client profiles associated with each user is the user profile. The present invention can apply the learned knowledge of one of a user's member clients to others of the user's member clients, so that the importance of the learned knowledge, e.g., the user's preference for a particular author in one interest area as represented by the member client, can increase the importance of that particular factor, A's authorship, for others of the user's member clients. Each of the clients of one user can be associated with the individual clients of other users insofar as the profiles of the respective clients have similar attributes. A "community" is a group of clients, called member clients, that have similar member client profiles, i.e., that share a subset of attributes or interests. In general, the subset of shared attributes forms the community profile for a given community and is representative of the community norms, or common client attributes.
The "relevance" of a particular informon broadly describes how well it satisfies the user's information need. The more relevant an informon is to a user, the higher the "signal" content. The less relevant the informon, the higher the "noise" content. Clearly, the notion of what is relevant to a particular user can vary over time and with context, and the user can find the relevance of a particular informon limited to only a few of the user's potentially vast interest areas. Because a user's interests typically change slowly, relative to the data stream, it is preferred to use adaptive procedures to track the user's current interests and follow them over time. Provision, too, is preferred to be made for sudden changes in interest, e.g., taking up antiquarian sword collecting and discontinuing stamp collecting, so that the method and apparatus track the evolution of "relevance" to a user and the communities of which the user is a member. In general, information filtering is the process of selecting the information that a users wishes to see, i.e., informons, from a large amount of data. Content-based filtering is a process of filtering by extracting features from the informon, e.g., the text of a document, to determine the informon's relevance. Collaborative filtering, on the other hand, is the process of filtering informons, e.g., documents, by determining what informons other users with similar interests or needs found to be relevant.
The system apparatus includes a filter structure having adaptive content-based filters and adaptive collaborative filters, which respectively include, and respond to, an adaptive content profile and an adaptive collaboration profile. As used herein, the term "content-based filter" means a filter in which content data, such as key words, is used in performing the filtering process. In a collaborative filter, other user data is used in performing the filtering process. A collaborative filter is also sometimes referred to as a "content" filter since it ultimately performs the task of finding an object or document having content relevant to the content desired by a user. If there are some instances herein where the term "content filter" is used as distinguished from a collaborative filter, it is intended that the term "content filter" mean "content-based filter." The adaptive filters each are preferred to include at least a portion of a community filter for each community serviced by the apparatus, and a portion of a member client filter for each member client of the serviced communities. For this reason, the adaptive filtering is distributed in that each of the community filters perform adaptive collaborative filtering and adaptive content filtering, even if on different levels, and even if many filters exist on a given level. The integrated filtering permits an individual user to be a unique member client of multiple communities, with each community including multiple member clients sharing similar interests. The adaptive features permit the interests of member clients and entire communities to change gradually over time. Also a member client has the ability to indicate a sudden change in preference, e.g., the member client remains a collector but is no longer interested in coin collecting.
The filter structure also implements adaptive credibility filtering, providing member clients with a measure of informon credibility, as judged by other member clients in the community. For example, a new member client in a first community, having no credibility, can inject an informon into the data flow, thereby providing other member clients in other communities with the proposed informon, based on the respective community profile and member client profiles. If the other member clients believe the content of the informon to be credible, the adaptive credibility profile will reflect a growing credibility. Conversely, feedback profiles from informon recipients that indicate a lack of credibility cause the adaptive credibility profile, for the informon author, to reflect untrustworthiness. However, the growth and declination of credibility are not "purely democratic," in the sense that one's credibility is susceptible to the bias of others' perceptions, so the growth or declination of one's credibility is generally proportional to how the credibility of the new member client is viewed by other member clients.
Member clients can put their respective reputations "on the line," and engage in spirited discussions which can be refereed by other interested member clients. The credibility profile further can be partitioned to permit separate credibility sub-profiles for the credibility of the content of the informon, the author, the author's community, the reviewers, and the like, and can be fed back to discussion participants, reviewers, and observers to monitor the responses of others to the debate. The adaptive credibility profiles for those member clients with top credibility ratings in their communities may be used to establish those member clients as "experts" in their respective communities.
With this functionality, additional features can be implemented, including, for example, "instant polling" on a matter of political or consumer interest. In conjunction with both content and collaborative filtering, credibility filtering, and the resulting adaptive credibility profiles, also may be used to produce other features, such as on-line consultation and recommendation services. Although the "experts" in the communities most closely related to the topic can be afforded special status as such, member clients from other communities also can participate in the consultation or recommendation process.
In one embodiment of the consultation service, credibility filtering can be augmented to include consultation filtering. With this feature, a member client can transmit an informon to the network with a request for guidance on an issue, for example, caring for a sick tropical fish. Other member clients can respond to the requester with informons related to the topic, e.g., suggestions for water temperature and antibiotics. The informons of the responders can include their respective credibility profiles, community membership, and professional or avocational affiliations. The requester can provide feedback to each of the responders, including a rating of the credibility of the responder on the particular topic. Additionally, the responders can accrue quality points, value tokens, or "info bucks," as apportioned by the requester, in return for useful guidance.
Similarly, one embodiment of an on-line recommendation service uses recommendation filtering and adaptive recommendation profiles to give member clients recommendations on matters as diverse as local auto mechanics and world-class medieval armor refurbishers. In this embodiment, the requester can transmit the informon to the network bearing the request for recommendation. Other member clients can respond to the requester with informons having specific recommendations or dis-recommendations, advice, etc. As with the consultation service, the informons of the responders can be augmented to include their respective credibility profiles, community membership, and professional or avocational affiliations. A rating of each recommendation provided by a responder, relative to other responders' recommendations, also can be supplied. The requester can provide feedback to each of the responders, including a rating of the credibility of the responder on the particular topic, or the quality of the recommendation. As before, the responders can accrue quality points, value tokens, or "info bucks," as apportioned by the requester, in return for the useful recommendation.
Furthermore, certain embodiments are preferred to be self-optimizing in that some or all of the adaptive filters used in the system dynamically seek optimal values for the function intended by the filter, e.g., content analysis, collaboration, credibility, reliability, etc.
The filter structure herein is capable of identifying, the preferences of individual member clients and communities, providing direct and inferential consumer preference information, and tracking shifts in the preferences whether the shifts be gradual or sudden. The consumer preference information can be used to target particular consumer preference groups, or cohorts, and provide members of the cohort with targeted informons relevant to their consumer preferences. This information also may be used to follow demographical shifts so that activities relying on accurate demographical data, such as retail marketing, can use the consumer preference information to anticipate evolving consumer needs in a timely manner.
To provide a basis for adaptation, it is preferred that each raw informon be processed into a standardized vector, which may be on the order of 20,000 to 100,000 tokens long. The learning and optimization methods that ultimately are chosen are preferred to be substantially robust to the problems which can be presented by such high-dimensional input spaces. Dimensionality reduction using methods such as the singular value decomposition (SVD), or auto-encoding neural networks attempt to reduce the size of the space while initially retaining the information contained in the original representation. However, the SVD can lose information during the transformation and may give inferior results. Two adaptation/learning methods that are presently preferred include the TF-IDF technique and the MDL technique.
FIG. 1 illustrates one embodiment of an information filtering apparatus 1 according to the invention herein. In general, a data stream is conveyed through network 3, which can be a global internetwork. A skilled artisan would recognize that apparatus 1 can be used with other types of networks, including, for example, an enterprise-wide network, or "intranet." Using network 3, User #1 (5) can communicate with other users, for example, User #2 (7) and User #3 (9), and also with distributed network resources such as resource #1 (11) and resource #2 (13).
Apparatus 1 is preferred to be part of computer system 16, although User #1 (5) is not required to be the sole user of computer system 16. In one present embodiment, it is preferred that computer system 16 having information filter apparatus 1 therein filters information for a plurality of users. One application for apparatus 1, for example, could be that user 5 and similar users may be subscribers to a commercial information filtering service, which can be provided by the owner of computer system 16.
Extraction means 17 can be coupled with, and receives data stream 15 from, network 3. Extraction means 17 can identify and extract raw informons 19 from data stream 15. Each of the raw informons 19 have has an information content. Extraction means 17 uses an adaptive content filter, and at least part of the adaptive content profile, to analyze the data stream for the presence of raw informons. Raw informons are those data entities whose content identifies them as being "in the ballpark," or of potential interest to a community coupled to apparatus 1. Extraction means 17 can remove duplicate informons, even if the informons arrive from different sources, so that user resources are not wasted by handling and viewing repetitive and cumulative information. Extraction means 17 also can use at least part of a community profile and a user profile for User #1 (5) to determine whether the informon content is relevant to the community of which User #1 is a part.
Filter means 21 adaptively filters raw informons 19 and produces proposed informons 23 which are conveyed to User #1 (5) by communication means 25. A proposed informon is a selected raw informon that, based upon the respective member client and community profiles, is predicted to be of particular interest to a member client of User 5. Filter means 21 can include a plurality of community filters 27 a, b and a plurality of member client filters 28 a-e, each respectively having community and member client profiles. When raw informons 19 are filtered by filter means 21, those informons that are predicted to be suitable for a particular member client of a particular community, e.g., User #1 (5), responsive to the respective community and member client profiles, are conveyed thereto. Where such is desired, filter means 21 also can include a credibility filter which enables means 21 to perform credibility filtering of raw informons 19 according to a credibility profile.
It is preferred that the adaptive filtering performed within filter means 21 by the plurality of filters 27 a,b, 28 a-e, and 35, use a self-optimizing adaptive filtering so that each of the parameters processed by filters 27 a,b, 28 a-e, and 35, is driven continually to respective values corresponding to a minimal error for each individual parameter. Self-optimization encourages a dynamic, marketplace-like operation of the system, in that those entities having the most desirable value, e.g., highest credibility, lowest predicted error, etc., are favored to prevail.
Self-optimization can be effected according to respective preselected self-optimizing adaptation techniques including, for example, one or more of a top-key-word-selection adaptation technique, a nearest-neighbor adaptation technique, a term-weighting adaptation technique, a probabilistic adaptation technique, and a neural network learning technique. In one present embodiment of the invention, the term-weighting adaptation technique is preferred to be a TF-IDF technique and the probabilistic adaptation technique is preferred to be a MDL technique.
When user 5 receives proposed informon 23 from apparatus 1, user 5 is provided with multiple feedback queries along with the proposed informon. By answering, user 5 creates a feedback profile that corresponds to feedback response 29. User feedback response 29 can be active feedback, passive feedback, or a combination. Active feedback can include the user's numerical rating for an informon, hints, and indices. Hints can include like or dislike of an author, and informon source and timeliness. Indices can include credibility, agreement with contest or author, humor, or value. Feedback response 29 provides an actual response to proposed informon 23, which is a measure of the relevance of the proposed informon to the information need of user 5. Such relevance feedback attempts to improve the performance for a particular profile by modifying the profiles, based on feedback response 29.
A predicted response anticipated by adaptive filtering means 21 can be compared to the actual feedback response 29 of user 5 by first adaptation means 30, which derives a prediction error. First adaptation means 30 also can include prediction means 33, which collects a number of temporally-spaced feedback responses, to update the adaptive collaboration profile, the adaptive content profile, or both, with an adapted future prediction 34, in order to minimize subsequent prediction errors by the respective adaptive collaboration filter and adaptive content filter.
In one embodiment of the invention herein, it is preferred that prediction means 33 be a self-optimizing prediction means using a preselected learning technique. Such techniques can include, for example, one or more of a top-key-word-selection learning technique, a nearest-neighbor learning technique, a term-weighting learning technique, and a probabilistic learning technique. First adaptation means 30 also can include a neural network therein and employ a neural network learning technique for adaptation and prediction. In one present embodiment of the invention, the term-weighting learning technique is preferred to be a TF-IDF technique and the probabilistic learning technique is preferred to be a MDL learning technique.
First adaptation means 30 further can include second adaptation means 32 for adapting at least one of the adaptive collaboration profiles, the adaptive content profiles, the community profile, and the user profile, responsive to at least one of the other profiles. In this manner, trends attributable to individual member clients, individual users, and individual communities in one domain of system 16 can be recognized by, and influence, similar entities in other domains (melding of agent "minds"), contained within system 16 to the extent that the respective entities share common attributes.
In other words, the second adaptation means 32 is structured to support an informon filtering operation for an individual user, and, in doing so, improve the filtering by making collaborative use of content profile data from other system users. The elements of the filter structure which work to achieve these results form an agent mind melding system. In accordance with the invention, the agent mind melding system makes a powerful contribution to the filtering capability of an integrated collaborative/content-based information filter system.
Agent mind melding has reference to commonality of information concepts across communities or users, i.e., a sharing of concepts. The agent mind melding system is structured to integrate shared concepts by integrating content profile data across communities or users.
The term "agent" in "agent mind melding" has meaning based on its use in the field of information technology. An "agent" generally is a computer rogram unit which is initiated and acts independently of human effort, and has one or more human-like characteristics such as the ability to learn, make human-like decisions, intelligently search, etc.
As considered more fully in connection with the embodiment of FIG. 2, the overall filter structure has multiple filtering levels to facilitate and practicalize the information filtering process and its scalability to increasing system loading where vast amounts of information are available and vast numbers of users are possible, as in the internet or other large information networks. Each content-based filter element employs a corresponding content data profile which is used comparatively to find informon matches, i.e., informons having content which meets user specified interests, queries, or other criteria. Accordingly, when the agent mind melding system of the invention is embodied in a multilevel filter structure, such as that of the preferred embodiment, the resultant structure provides powerfully enhanced information filtering with facilitated scalability.
Agent mind melding makes the filtering process collaborative by merging together content profile data of an individual user with relevant content profile data of other users when an informon is being evaluated for the individual user. In the multilevel filter structure of the preferred embodiment, agent mind melding can be implemented in the content-based filtering process at any filter level or all filter levels (i.e, in the preferred embodiment, preprocessing, community, and user levels). At the bottom filter level, agent mind melding can occur between member clients in different user groups. The term "user" is meant herein to refer to actual individual users or member clients.
As one example profile data merger in agent mind melding, one community may pertain to restaurants in New York and a second community may pertain to restaurants in Philadelphia. These two communities have shared concepts since they both relate to restaurants, and profile data of either community can be used in the information filter of the other community.
As another example, two (or more) users may want information on "radiology", and thus have many of the same informons filtered to them through the integrated collaborative/content-based filter structure. Even more specifically, both users may want articles about the latest radiology technology more than articles about other radiology topics, as determined from ratings of informons previously considered by both users. Thus, the two users may provide similar evaluative feedback for the informons which they both consider. As a result of adaptive adjustment to feedback data, the concept data profiles of the two users may become similar.
If the profile data of the two (or more) users are sufficiently similar, the profiles can be melded together as noted above. To meld profiles, the agent melding system can modify each profile to be more similar to the other profile (i.e., weighted averages can be used for the terms which make up each user profile). Alternatively, the agent melding system can create a separate profile which is the average of multiple similar profiles. Various other known data combining schemes can be employed to merge content data profiles in implementing the invention. When merged similar profiles are used in the filtering of informons for an individual user, a wider range of informons, and perhaps better informons, may be passed to the individual user.
As indicated, melding of profiles by the agent mind melding system only requires that the profiles be similar, not identical. Thus, a similarity threshold is defined on the basis of a selected similarity measure, and detection of profiles for merging is based on evaluation of their similarity as determined from the similarity threshold using the simikiity measure.
The fact that profiles are not identical, when merged in accordance with the invention, is beneficial to the information filtering process since different profile information from different users (or communities) is integrated into the filter operation. Each user or community thus acquires a mechanism for receiving related informons which are potentially different from those that would be received by filtering with only the individual user's profile.
The agent mind melding system contributes significant filtering power to an overall collaborative/content-based filter system for reasons including the fact that users can receive relevant informons without having to (1) read/rank all of the informons that other users have read and ranked, (2) start a new wire, based on creation of a new profile, for extended relevant informon reception and (3) make a manual modification of the current profile for extended informon reception.
FIG. 8 is a functional block diagram of a collaborative/content-based information filter system 50C in which an agent mind melding system is implemented in accordance with the invention. The filter system 50C can be embodied like the system shown in FIG. 1 and the system shown in FIG. 2. Essentially, the block diagram of FIG. 8 has been simplified in order to highlight the structure and operation of the agent mind melding system of the invention.
As shown, the system 50C preferably includes a multi-level filter structure 52C which receives informons from a network for processing by content-based filters with collaborative filtering integrated into the filter operation. The multi-level configuration is preferably like that shown in FIG. 2. An individual user station 54C and other user stations 56C-56Cn are interfaced through telecommunication links to the filter structure 52C in order to submit queries and other data and to receive filtered informons for consideration and to receive other information.
User ratings of considered informons are coupled as feedback data to a mindpool system 58C which provides collaborative input data for integration with content-based profile data and informon data in an informon rating system included in the filter structure 52C, as more fully described in connection with FIG. 6. Users also provide evaluative data on considered informons for adaptive updating of content-based profiles 53C and 55C.
Integrated collaborative/content-based filter operation is also provided by an agent mind melding system (AMMS) indicated by dotted box 60C. The AMMS 60C includes, as source operating data, all of the profiles 53C and 55C stored in the content-based profile data base. These profiles include user profiles which have been built from original user queries and adaptively improved through learning from user feedback.
An AMMS processor 62C analyzes the stored profiles in effect to determine which profile or which merged profiles should be used in a current informon filtering operation. For example, if an informon is being filtered for the individual user 54C, the processor 62C determines whether the profile data for the individual user 54C or merged profile data of the individual user 54C and one or more other users 56C1-n is to be used in the filtering operation. This determination is based on similarity analysis as considered above. Once the applicable content profile data is determined, it is implemented in the filter structure 52C, and the informon is processed and, if sufficiently relevant, evaluated as described elsewhere in this specification.
The logic flow for the AMMS 60C is generally shown in FIG. 9. Thus, the system retrieves stored content-based profiles as indicated by block 72C, with user feedback updating the stored content-based profiles as indicated by block 70C. These profiles can include the user profiles, the community profiles, and the preprocessing profiles, and preferably include at least the user and community profiles in the preferred embodiment.
Next, in block 74C, the profiles are analyzed for similarity against a similarity threshold using an appropriate similarity measure. In block 76C, profiles meeting the similarity test are integrated or merged in the maimer previously described. If no profile similarities exist above the threshold level, no merging is performed, and the individual user's profile is specified for use in the informon filter operation (block 78C). If a merged profile results from the similarity analysis, the merged profile is used for informon filtering (block 78C).
Apparatus 1 also can include a computer storage means 31 for storing the profiles, including the adaptive content profile and the adaptive collaboration profile. Additional trend-tracking information can be stored for later retrieval in storage means 31, or may be conveyed to network 3 for remote analysis, for example, by User #2 (7).
FIG. 2 illustrates another preferred embodiment of information filtering apparatus 50, in computer system 51. Apparatus 50 can include first processor 52, second processors 53 a,b, third processors 64 a-d, and a fourth processor 55, to effect the desired information filtering. First processor 52 can be coupled to, and receive a data stream 56 from, network 57. First processor 52 can serve as a pre-processor by extracting raw informons 58 from data stream 56 responsive to preprocessing profile 49 and conveying informons 58 to second processors 53 a,b.
Because of the inconsistencies presented by the nearly-infinite individual differences in the modes of conceptualization, expression, and vocabulary among users, even within a community of coinciding interests, similar notions can be described with vastly different terms and connotations, greatly complicating informon characterization. Mode variations can be even greater between disparate communities, discouraging interaction and knowledge-sharing among communities. Therefore, it is particularly preferred that processor 52 create a mode-invariant representation for each raw informon, thus allowing fast, accurate informon characterization and collaborative filtering. Mode-invariant representations tend to facilitate relevant informon selection and distribution within and among communities, thereby promoting knowledge-sharing, thereby benefitting the group of interlinked communities, i.e., a society, as well.
First processor 52 also can be used to prevent duplicate informons, e.g., the same information from different sources, from further penetrating, and thus consuming the resources of, the filtering process. Other processors 53,a,b, 54 a-d, also may be used to perform the duplicate information elimination function, but additionally may measure the differences between the existing informon and new informons. That difference between the content of the informon the previous time the user reviewed it and the content of the informon in its present form is the "delta" of interest. Processors 53 a,b, 54 a-d may eliminate the informon from further processing, or direct the new, altered informon to the member client, in the event that nature or extent of the change exceeds a "delta" threshold. In general, from the notion of exceeding a preselected delta threshold, one may infer that the informon has changed to the extent that the change is interesting to the user. The nature of this change can be shared among all of a user's member clients. This delta threshold can be preselected by the user, or by the preselected learning technique. Such processing, or "delta learning" can be accomplished by second processors 53 a,b, alone or in concert with third processors 54 a-d. Indeed, third processors 54 a-d can be the locus for delta learning, where processors 54 a-d adapts a delta learning profile for each member client of the community, i.e. user, thus anticipating those changes in existing informons that the user may find "interesting."
Second processors 53 a,b can filter raw informons 58 and extract proposed community informons 59 a, b therefrom. Informons 59 a,b are those predicted by processor 53 a,b to be relevant to the respective communities, in response to community profiles 48 a, b that are unique to the communities. Although only two second processors 53 a,b are shown in FIG. 2, system 51 can be scaled to support many more processors, and communities. It is presently preferred that second processors 53 a,b extract community informons 59 a,b using a two-step process. Where processor 52 has generated mode-invariant concept representations of the raw informons, processor 53 a,b can perform concept-based indexing, and then provide detailed community filtering of each informon.
Third processors 54 a-d can receive community informons 59 a,b from processors 53 a,b, and extract proposed member client informons 61 a-d therefrom, responsive to unique member client profiles 62 a-d for respective ones of member clients 63 a-d. Each user can be represented by multiple member clients in multiple communities. For example, each of users 64 a,b can maintain interests in each of the communities serviced by-respective second processors 53 a,b, and each receive separate member client informons 61 b,c and 61 a, d, respectively.
Each member client 63 a-d provides respective member client feedback 65 a-d to fourth processor 55, responsive to the proposed member client informons 61 a-d. Based upon the member client feedback 65 a-d, processor 55 updates at least one of the preprocessing profile 49, community profiles 48 a,b and member client profiles 62 a-d. Also, processor 55 adapts at least one of the adaptive content profile 68 and the adaptive collaboration profile 69, responsive to profiles 49, 48 a,b, and 62 a-d.
Fourth processor 55 can include a plurality of adaptive filters 66 a-d for each of the aforementioned profiles and computer storage therefor. It is preferred that the plurality of adaptive filters 66 a-d be self-optimizing adaptive filters. Self-optimization can be effected according to a preselected self-optimizing adaptation technique including, for example, one or more of a top-key-word-selection adaptation technique, a nearest-neighbor adaptation technique, a term-weighting adaptation technique, and a probabilistic adaptation technique. Any of the adaptive filters 66 a-d may include a neural network. In one present embodiment of the invention, the term-weighting adaptation technique is preferred to be a TF-IDF technique and the probabilistic adaptation technique is preferred to be a MDL technique.
An artisan would recognize that one or more of the processors 52-55 could be combined functionally so that the actual number of processors used in the apparatus 50 could be less than, or greater than, that illustrated in FIG. 2. For example, in one embodiment of the present invention, first processor 52 can be in a single microcomputer workstation, with processors 53-55 being implemented in additional respective microcomputer systems. Suitable microcomputer systems can include those based upon the Intel� Pentium-Pro™ microprocessor. In fact, the flexibility of design presented by the invention allows for extensive scalability of apparatus 50, in which the number of users, and the communities supported may be easily expanded by adding suitable processors. As described in the context of FIG. 1, the interrelation of the several adaptive profiles and respective filters allow trends attributable to individual member clients, individual users, and individual communities in one domain of system 51 to be recognized by, and influence, similar entities in other domains, of system 51 to the extent that the respective entities in the different domains share common attributes.
The above described system operates in accordance with a method 100 for information filtering in a computer system, as illustrated in FIG. 3, which includes providing a dynamic informon characterization (step 105) having a plurality of profiles encoded therein, including an adaptive content profile and an adaptive collaboration profile; and adaptively filtering the raw informons (step 110) responsive to the dynamic informon characterization, thereby producing a proposed informon. The method continues by presenting the proposed informon to the user (step 115) and receiving a feedback profile from the user (step 120), responsive to the proposed informon. Also, the method includes adapting at least one of the adaptive content profile (step 125) and the adaptive collaboration profile responsive to the feedback profile; and updating the dynamic informon characterization (step 130) responsive thereto.
The adaptive filtering (step 110) in method 100 can be machine distributed adaptive filtering that includes community filtering (substep 135), using a community profile for each community, and client filtering (substep 140), similarly using a member client profile for each member client of each community. It is preferred that the filtering in substeps 135 and 140 be responsive to the adaptive content profile and the adaptive collaboration profile. Method 100 comprehends servicing multiple communities and multiple users. In turn, each user may be represented by multiple member clients, with each client having a unique member client profile and being a member of a selected community. It is preferred that updating the dynamic informon characterization (step 130) further include predicting selected subsequent member client responses (step 150).
Method 100 can also include credibility filtering (step 155) of the raw informons responsive to an adaptive credibility profile and updating the credibility profile (step 160) responsive to the user feedback profile. Method 100 further can include creating a consumer profile (step 165) responsive to the user feedback profile. In general, the consumer profile is representative of predetermined consumer preference criteria relative to the communities of which the user is a member client. Furthermore, grouping selected ones (step 170) of the users into a preference cohort, responsive to the preselected consumer preference criteria, can facilitate providing a targeted informon (step 175), such as an advertisement, to the preference cohort.
FIG. 4 illustrates yet another preferred method 200. In general, method 200 includes partitioning (step 205) each user into multiple member clients, each having a unique member client profile with multiple client attributes and grouping member clients (step 210) to form multiple communities with each member client in a particular community sharing selected client attributes with other member clients, thereby providing each community with a unique community profile having common client attributes.
Method 200 continues by predicting a community profile (step 215) for each community using first prediction criteria, and predicting a member client profile (step 220) for a member client in a particular community using second prediction criteria. Method 200 also includes the steps of extracting raw informons (step 225) from a data stream and selecting proposed informons (step 230) from raw informons. The proposed informons generally are correlated with one or more of the common client attributes of a community, and of the member client attributes of the particular member client to whom the proposed informon is offered. After providing the proposed informons to the user (step 235), receiving user feedback (step 240) in response to the proposed informons permits the updating of the first and second prediction criteria (step 245) responsive to the user feedback.
Method 200 further may include prefiltering the data stream (step 250) using the predicted community profile, with the predicted community profile identifying the raw informons in the data stream.
Step 230 of selecting proposed informons can include filtering the raw informons using an adaptive content filter (step 255) responsive to the informon content; filtering the raw informons using an adaptive collaboration filter (step 260) responsive to the common client attributes for the pertaining community; and filtering the raw informons using an adaptive member client filter (step 265) responsive to the unique member client profile.
It is preferred that updating the first and second prediction criteria (step 245) employ a self-optimizing adaptation technique, including, for example, one or more of a top-key-word-selection adaptation technique, a nearest-neighbor adaptation technique, a term-weighting adaptation technique, and a probabilistic adaptation technique. It is further preferred that the term-weighting adaptation technique be a TF-IDF technique and the probabilistic adaptation technique be a minimum description length technique.
The information filtering method shown in FIG. 5 provides rapid, efficient data reduction and routing, or filtering, to the appropriate member client. The method 300 includes parsing the data stream into tokens (step 301); creating a mode-invariant (MI) profile of the informon (step 305); selecting the most appropriate communities for each informon, based on the MI profile, using concept-based indexing (step 310); detailed analysis (step 315) of each informon with regard to its fit within each community; eliminating poor-fitting informons (step 320); detailed filtering of each informon relative to fit for each member client (step 325); eliminating poor-fitting informons (step 330); presenting the informon to the member client/user (step 335); and obtaining the member client/user response, including multiple ratings for different facets of the user's response to the informon (step 340).
Is preferred that coherent portions of the data stream, i.e., potential raw informons, be first parsed (step 301) into generalized words, called tokens. Tokens include punctuation and other specialized symbols that may be part of the structure found in the article headers. For example, in addition to typical words such as "seminar" counting as tokens, the punctuation mark "$" and the symbol "Newsgroup:comp.ai" are also tokens. Using noun phrases as tokens also can be useful.
Next a vector of token counts for the document is created. This vector is the size of the total vocabulary, with zeros for tokens not occurring in the document. Using this type of vector is sometimes called the bag-of-words model. While the bag-of-words model does not capture the order of the tokens in the document, which may be needed for linguistic or syntactic analysis, it captures most of the information needed for filtering purposes.
Although, it is common in information retrieval systems to group the tokens together by their common linguistic roots, called stemming, as a next step it is preferred in the present invention that the tokens be left in their unstemmed form. In this form, the tokens are amenable to being classified into mode-invariant concept components.
Creating a mode-invariant profile (step 305), C, includes creating a conceptual representation for each informon, A, that is invariant with respect to the form-of-expression, e.g., vocabulary and conceptualization. Each community can consist of a "Meta-U-Zine" collection, M, of informons. Based upon profile C, the appropriate communities, if any, for each informon in the data stream are selected by concept-based indexing (step 310) into each M. That is, for each concept C that describes A, put A into a queue QM, for each M which is related to C. It is preferred that there is a list of Ms that is stored for each concept and that can be easily index-searched. Each A that is determined to be a poor fit for a particular M is eliminated from further processing. Once A has been matched with a particular M, a more complex community profile PM is developed and maintained for each M (step 315). If A has fallen into QM, then A is analyzed to determine whether it matches PM strongly enough to be retained or "weeded" out (step 325) at this stage.
Each A for a particular M is sent to each user's personal agent, or member client U of M, for additional analysis based on the member client's profile (step 325). Each A that fits U's interests sufficiently is selected for U's personal informon, or "U-Zine," collection, Z. Poor-fitting informons are eliminated from placement in Z (step 330). This user-level stage of analysis and selection may be performed on a centralized server site or on the user's computer.
Next, the proposed informons are presented to user U (step 335) for review. User U reads and rates each selected A found in Z (step 340). The feedback from U can consist of a rating for how "interesting" U found A to be, as well as one or more of the following:
Opinion feedback: Did U agree, disagree, or have no opinion regarding the position of A?
Credibility Feedback: Did U find the facts, logic, sources, and quotes in A to be truthful and credible or not?
Informon Qualities: How does the user rate the informons qualities, for example, "interestingness," credibility, funniness, content value, writing quality, violence content, sexual content, profanity level, business importance, scientific merit, surprise/unexpectedness of information content, artistic quality, dramatic appeal, entertainment value, trendiness/importance to future directions, and opinion agreement.
Specific Reason Feedback: Why did the user like or dislike A?
Because of the authority?
Because of the source?
Because A is out-of-date (e.g. weather report from 3 weeks ago)?
Because the information contained in A has been seen already? (I.e., the problem of duplicate information delivery)
Categorization Feedback: Did U liked A? Was it placed within the correct M and Z?
Such multi-faceted feedback queries can produce rich feedback profiles from U that can be used to adapt each of the profiles used in the filtering process to some optimal operating point.
One embodiment of creating a MI profile (step 305) for each concept can include concept profiling, creation, and optimization. Broad descriptors can be used to create a substantially-invariant concept profile, ideally without the word choice used to express concept C. A concept profile can include positive concept clues (PCC) and negative concept clues (NCC). The PCC and NCC can be combined by a processor to create a measure-of-fit that can be compared to a predetermined threshold. If the combined effect of the PCC and NCC exceeds the predetermined threshold, then informon A can be assumed to be related to concept C; otherwise it is eliminated from further processing. PCC is a set of words, phrases, and other features, such as the source or the author, each with an associated weight, that tend to be in A which contains C. In contrast, NCC is a set of words, phrases, and other features, such as the source or the author, each with an associated weight that tend to make it more unlikely that A is contained in C. For example, if the term "car" is in A, then it is likely to be about automobiles. However, if the phrase "bumper car" also is in A, then it is more likely that A related to amusement parks. Therefore, "bumper car" would fall into the profile of negative concept clues for the concept "automobile."
Typically, concept profile C can be created by one or more means. First, C can be explicitly created by user U. Second, C can be created by an electronic thesaurus or similar device that can catalog and select from a set of concepts and the words that can be associated with that concept. Third, C can be created by using co-occurrence information that can be generated by analyzing the content of an informon. This means uses the fact that related features of a concept tend to occur more often within the same document than in general. Fourth, C can be created by the analysis of collections, H, of A that have been rated by one or more U. Combinations of features that tend to occur repeatedly in H can be grouped together as PCC for the analysis of a new concept. Also, an A that one or more U have rated and determined not to be within a particular Z can be used for the extraction of NCC.
Concept profiles can be optimized or learned continually after their creation, with the objective that nearly all As that Us have found interesting, and belonging in M, should pass the predetermined threshold of at least one C that can serve as an index into M. Another objective of concept profile management is that, for each A that does not fall into any of the one or more M that are indexed by C, the breadth of C is adjusted to preserve the first objective, insofar as possible. For example, if C's threshold is exceeded for a given A, C's breadth can be narrowed by reducing PCC, increasing NCC, or both, or by increasing the threshold for C.
In the next stage of filtering, one embodiment of content-based indexing takes an A that has been processed into the set of C that describe it, and determine which M should accept the article for subsequent filtering, for example, detailed indexing of incoming A. It is preferred that a data structure including a database be used, so that the vector of Ms, that are related to any concept C, may be looked-up. Furthermore, when a Z is created by U, the concept clues given by U to the information filter can be used to determine a set of likely concepts C that describe what U is seeking. For example, if U types in "basketball" as a likely word in the associated Z, then all concepts that have a high positive weight for the word "basketball" are associated with the new Z. If no such concepts C seem to pre-exist, an entirely new concept C is created that is endowed with the clues U has given as the starting profile.
To augment the effectiveness of concept-based indexing, it is preferred to provide continual optimization learning. In general, when a concept C no longer uniquely triggers any documents that have been classified and liked by member clients U in a particular community M, then that M is removed from the list of M indexed into by C. Also, when there appears to be significant overlap between articles fitting concept C, and articles that have been classified by users as belonging to M, and if C does not currently index into M, then M can be added to the list of M indexed into by C. The foregoing heuristic for expanding the concepts C that are covered by M, can potentially make M too broad and, thus, accept too many articles. Therefore, it further is preferred that a reasonable but arbitrary limit is set on the conceptual size covered by M.
With regard to the detailed analysis of each informon A with respect to the community profile for each M, each A must pass through this analysis for each U subscribing to a particular M, i.e., for each member client in a particular community. After A has passed that stage, it is then filtered at a more personal, member client level for each of those users. The profile and filtering process are very similar for both the community level and the member client level, except that at the community level, the empirical data obtained is for all U who subscribed to M, and not merely an individual U. Other information about the individual U can be used to help the filter, such as what U thinks of what a particular author writes in other Zs that the user reads, and articles that can't be used for the group-level M processing.
FIG. 6 illustrates the development of a profile, and its associated predictors. Typically, regarding the structure of a profile 400, the information input into the structure can be divided into three broad categories: (1) Structured Feature Information (SFI) 405; (2) Unstructured Feature Information (UFI) 410; and (3) Collaborative Input (CI) 415. Features derived from combinations of these three types act as additional peer-level inputs for the next level of the rating prediction function, called (4) Correlated-Feature, Error-Correction Units (CFECU) 420. From inputs 405, 410, 415, 420, learning functions 425 a-d can be applied to get two computed functions 426 a-d, 428 a-d of the inputs. These two functions are the Independent Rating Predictors (IRP) 426 a-d, and the associated Uncertainty Predictors (UP) 428 a-d. IRPs 426 a-d can be weighted by dividing them by their respective UPs 428 a-d, so that the more certain an IRP 426 a-d is, the higher its weight. Each weighted IRP 429 a-d is brought together with other IRPs 429 a-d in a combination function 427 a-d. This combination function 427 a-d can be from a simple, weighted, additive function to a far more complex neural network function. The results from this are normalized by the total uncertainty across all UPs, from Certain=zero to Uncertain=infinity, and combined using the Certainty Weighting Function (CWF) 430. Once the CWF 430 has combined the IRPs 426 a-d, it is preferred that result 432 be shaped via a monotonically increasing function, to map to the range and distribution of the actual ratings. This function is called the Complete Rating Predictor (CRP) 432.
SFI 405 can include vectors of authors, sources, and other features of informon A that may be influential in determining the degree to which A falls into the categories in a given M. UFI 410 can include vectors of important words, phrases, and concepts that help to determine the degree to which A falls into a given M. Vectors can exist for different canonical parts of A. For example, individual vectors may be provided for subject/headings, content body, related information in other referenced informons, and the like. It is preferred that a positive and negative vector exists for each canonical part.
CI 415 is received from other Us who already have seen A and have rated it. The input used for CI 415 can include, for example, "interestingness," credibility, funniness, content value, writing quality, violence content, sexual content, profanity level, business importance, scientific merit, surprise/unexpectedness of information content, artistic quality, dramatic appeal, entertainment value, trendiness/importance to future directions, and opinion agreement. Each CFECU 420 is a unit that can detect sets of specific feature combinations which are exceptions in combination. For example, author X's articles are generally disliked in the Z for woodworking, except when X writes about lathes. When an informon authored by X contains the concept of "lathes," then the appropriate CFECU 420 is triggered to signal that this is an exception, and accordingly a signal is sent to offset the general negative signal otherwise triggered because of the general dislike for X's informons in the woodworking Z.
As an example the form of Structured Feature Information (SFI) 405 can include fields such as Author, Source, Information-Type, and other fields previously identified to be of particular value in the analysis. For simplicity, the exemplary SFI, below, accounts only for the Author field. For this example, assume three authors A, B, and C, have collectively submitted 10 articles that have been read, and have been rated as in TABLE 1 (following the text of this specification). In the accompanying rating scheme, a rating can vary between 1 and 5, with 5 indicating a "most interesting" article. If four new articles (11, 12, 13, 14) arrive that have not yet been rated, and, in addition to authors A, B, C, and a new author D has contributed, a simple IRP for the Author field, that just takes sums of the averages, would be as follows:
IRP(author)=weighted sum of
average(ratings given the author so far)
average(ratings given the author so far in this M)
average(ratings given all authors so far in this M)
average(ratings given all authors)
average(ratings given the author so far by a particular user U)*
average(ratings given the author so far in this M by a particular user U)*
average(ratings given all authors so far in this M by a particular user U)*
average(ratings given all authors by a particular user)*
* (If for a Personal Z)
The purpose of the weighted sum is to make use of broader, more general statistics, when strong statistics for a particular user reading an informon by a particular author, within a particular Z may not yet be available. When stronger statistics are available, the broader terms can be eliminated by using smaller weights. This weighting scheme is similar to that used for creating CWFs 430, for the profiles as a whole. Some of the averages may be left out in the actual storage of the profile if, for example, an author's average rating for a particular M is not "significantly" different from the average for the author across all Ms. Here, "significance" is used is in a statistical sense, and frameworks such as the Minimum Description Length (MDL) Principle can be used to determine when to store or use a more "local" component of the IRP. As a simple example, the following IRP employs only two of the above terms:
IRP(author)=weighted sum of
average (ratings given this author so far in this M)
average (ratings given all authors so far in this M)
Table 2 gives the values attained for the four new articles.
It is preferred that an estimate of the uncertainty resulting from a positive or negative IRP be made, and a complex neural net approach could be used. However, a simpler method, useful for this example, is simply to repeat the same process that was used for the IRP but, instead of predicting the rating, it is preferred to predict the squared-error, given the feature vector. The exact square-error values can be used as the informon weights, instead of using a rating-weight lookup table. A more optimal mapping function could also be computed, if indicated by the application.
Token 1
Token 2
Token 3
Token 4
IRP pos. vector
IRP neg. vector
The UPs then can be computed in a manner similar to the IRP's: comparisons with the actual document vectors can be made to get a similarity measure, and then a mapping function can be used to get an UP.
Making effective use of collaborative input (CI) from other users U is a difficult problem because of the following seven issues. First, there generally is no a priori knowledge regarding which users already will have rated an informon A, before making a prediction for a user U, who hasn't yet read informon A. Therefore, a model for prediction must be operational no matter which subset of the inputs happen to be available, if any, at a given time. Second, computational efficiency must be maintained in light of a potentially very large set of users and informons. Third, incremental updates of rating predictions often are desired, as more feedback is reported from users regarding an informon. Fourth, in learning good models for making rating predictions, only very sparse data typically is available for each users rating of each document. Thus, a large "missing data" problem must be dealt with effectively.
Fifth, most potential solutions to the CI problem require independence assumptions that, when grossly violated, give very poor results. As an example of an independence assumption violation, assume that ten users of a collaborative filtering system, called the "B-Team," always rate all articles exactly in the same way, for example, because they think very much alike. Further assume that user A's ratings are correlated with the B-Team at the 0.5 level, and are correlated with user C at the 0.9 level. Now, suppose user C reads an article and rates it a "5". Based on that C's rating, it is reasonable to predict that A's rating also might be a "5". Further, suppose that a member of the B-Team reads the article, and rates it a "2". Existing collaborative filtering methods are likely to predict that A's rating RA would be:
In principle, if other members of the B-Team then read and rate the article, it should not affect the prediction of A's rating, RA, because it is known that other B-Team members always rate the article with the same value as the first member of the B-Team. However, the prediction for A by existing collaborative filtering schemes would tend to give 10 times the weight to the "2" rating, and would be:
Existing collaborative filtering schemes do not work well in this case because B-Team's ratings are not independent, and have a correlation among one another of 1. The information filter according to the present invention can recognize and compensate for such inter-user correlation.
Sixth, information about the community of people is known, other than each user's ratings of informons. This information can include the present topics the users like, what authors the users like, etc. This information can make the system more effective when it is used for learning stronger associations between community members. For example, because Users A and B in a particular community M have never yet read and rated an informon in common, no correlation between their likes and dislikes can be made, based on common ratings alone. However, users A and B have both read and liked several informons authored by the same author, X, although Users A and B each read a distinctly different Zs. Such information can be used to make the inference that there is a possible relationship between user A's interests and user B's interests. For the most part, existing collaborative filtering systems can not take advantage of this knowledge.
Seventh, information about the informon under consideration also is known, in addition to the ratings given it so far. For example, from knowing that informon A is about the concept of "gardening", better use can be made of which users' ratings are more relevant in the context of the information in the informon. If user B's rating agrees with user D's rating of articles when the subject is about "politics", but B's ratings agree more with user D when informon A is about "gardening", then the relationship between User B's ratings and User D's ratings are preferred to be emphasized to a greater extent than the relationship between User B and User C when making predictions about informon A.
With regard to the aforementioned fourth, sixth and seventh issues namely, making effective use of sparse, but known, information about the community and the informon, it is possible to determine the influence of user A's rating of an informon on the predicted rating of the informon for a second user, B. For example, where user A and user B have read and rated in common a certain number of informons, the influence of user A's rating of informon D on the predicted rating of informon D for user B can be defined by a relationship that has two components. First, there can be a common "mindset," SM, between user A and user B and informon D, that may be expressed as:
Second, a correlation may be taken between user A's past ratings and user B's past ratings with respect to informons that are similar to D. This correlation can be taken by weighting all informons E that A and B have rated in common by the similarity of E to D, SED:
Each of the examples can be weighted by
Note that the "�" in the above equation may not be a mere multiplication or cross-product, but rather be a method for comparing the similarity between the profiles. Next, the similarity of the member client profiles and informon content profiles can be compared. A neural network could be used to learn how to compare profiles so that the error in predicted ratings is minimized. However, the invention can be embodied with use of a simple cosine similarity metric, like that previously considered in connection with Unstructured Feature Information (UFI) can be used.
The method used preferable includes more than just the tokens, such as the author and other SFI; and, it is preferred that the three vectors for component also are able to be compared. SFIs may be handled by transforming them into an entity that can be treated in a comparable way to token frequencies that can be multiplied in the standard token frequency comparison method, which would be recognized by a skilled artisan.
Continuing in the ongoing example, the Author field may be used. Where user A and user B have rated authors K and L, the token frequency vector may appear as follows:
Avg. Rating
Avg. Rating
Avg. Rating
Given to
# in
Given to
# in
Given to
# in
Author K
Author L
Author M
Further, the author component of the member client profiles of user A and user B may be compared by taking a special weighted correlation of each author under comparison. In general, the weight is a function F of the sample sizes for user A's and user B's rating of the author, where F is the product of a monotonically-increasing function of the sample size for each of user A and user B. Also, a simple function G of whether the informon D is by the author or not is used. This function can be: G=q if so, and G=p<q if not, where p and q are optimized constraints according to the domain of the filtering system. When there has been no rating of an author by a user, then the function of the zero sample size is positive. This is because the fact that the user did not read anything by the author can signify some indication that the author might not produce an informon which would be highly rated by the user. In this case, the exact value is an increasing function H of the total articles read by a particular user so far, because it becomes more likely that the user is intentionally avoiding reading informons by that author with each subsequent article that has been read but is not prepared by the author. In general, the exact weighting function and parameters can be empirically derived rather than theoretically derived, and so is chosen by the optimization of the overall rating prediction functions. Continuing in the present example, a correlation can be computed with the following weights for the authors K, L and M.
F(21,1,not author)
= log(21 + 1) � log(1 + 1) � G(not author)
= 0.04
F(5,7, author or D)
= log(5 + 1) � log(7 + 1) � G(author)
= 0.70
F(0.2, not author)
= H(26) � log(2 + 1) � G(not author)
= 0.02
It is preferred that the logarithm be used as the monotonically-increasing function and that p=1, q=0.1. Also used are H=log(sample_size*0.1) and an assumed rating, for those authors who are unrated by a user, to the value of "2." The correlation for the author SFI can be mapped to a non-zero range, so that it can be included in the cosine similarity metric. This mapping can be provided by a simple one-neuron neural network, or a linear function such as, (correlation+1)*P0. Where the P0 is an optimized parameter used to produce the predicted ratings with the lowest error in the given domain for filtering.
An artisan skilled in information retrieval would recognize that there are numerous methods that can be used to effect informon comparisons, particularly document comparisons. One preferred method is to use a TF-IDF weighting technique in conjunction with the cosine similarity metric. SFI including author, can be handled by including them as another token in the vector. However, the token is preferred to be weighted by a factor that is empirically optimized rather than using a TF-IDF approach. Each component of the relationship between user A's and user B's can be combined to produce the function to predict the rating of informon D for user B. The combination function can be a simple additive function, a product function, or a complex function, including, for example, a neural network mapping function, depending upon computational efficiency constraints encountered in the application. Optimization of the combination function can be achieved by minimizing the predicted rating error as an objective.
In addition to determining the relationship between two user's ratings, a relationship that can be used and combined across a large population of users can be developed. This relationship is most susceptible to the aforementioned first, second, third, and fifth issues in the effective use of collaborative input. Specifically, the difficulty with specifying a user rating relationship across a large population of users is compounded by the lack of a priori knowledge regarding a large volume of dynamically changing information that may have unexpected correlation and therefore grossly violate independence assumptions.
In one embodiment of the present invention, it is preferred that users be broken into distributed groups called "mindpools." Mindpools can be purely hierarchical, purely parallel, or a combination of both. Mindpools can be similar to the aforementioned "community" or may instead be one of many subcommunities. These multiple hierarchies can be used to represent different qualities of an article. Some qualities that can be maintained in separate hierarchies include: interestingness; credibility; funniness; valuableness; writing quality; violence content; sexual content; profanity level; business importance; scientific merit; artistic quality; dramatic appeal; entertainment value; surprise or unexpectedness of information content; trendiness or importance to future directions; and opinion agreement. Each of these qualities can be optionally addressed by users with a rating feedback mechanism and, therefore, these qualities can be used to drive separate mindpool hierarchies. Also, the qualities can be used in combinations, if appropriate, to develop more complex composite informon qualities, and more sublime mindpools.
FIG. 7 illustrates a preferred embodiment of a mindpool heirarchical system 500 for processing informon rating data fed back from users of the system. It is preferred that all users be members of the uppermost portion of the hierarchy, namely, the top mindpool 501. Mindpool 501 can be broken into sub-mindpools 502 a-c, which separate users into those having at least some common interests. Furthermore, each sub-mindpool 502 a-c can be respectively broken into sub-sub-mindpools 503 a-b, 503 c-d, 503 e,f,g to which users 504 a-g are respective members. As used herein, mindpool 501 is the parent node to sub-mindpools 502 a-c, and sub-mindpools 502 a-c are the respective parent nodes to sub-sub-mindpools 503 a-g. Sub-mindpools 502 a-c are the child nodes to mindpool 501 and sub-sub-mindpools 503 a-g are child nodes to respective mindpools 503 a-c. Sub-sub-mindpools 503 a-g can be considered to be end nodes. Users 505 a,b can be members of sub-mindpool 502 a, 502 c, if such more closely matches their interests than would membership in a sub-sub-mindpool 503 a-g. In general, the objective is to break down the entire population of users into subsets that are optimally similar. For example, the set of users who find the same articles about "gardening" by author A to be interesting but nevertheless found other articles by author A on "gardening" to be uninteresting may be joined in one subset.
A processing means or mindpool manager may be used to handle the management of each of the mindpools 501, 502 a-c, and 503 a-g. A mindpool manager performs the following functions: (1) receiving rating information from child-node mindpool managers and from those users coupled directly to the manager; (2) passing rating information or compiled statistics of the rating information up to the manager's parent node, if such exists; (3) receiving estimations of the mindpool consensus on the rating for an informon from the manager's parent mindpool, if such exists; and (4) making estimations of the mindpool consensus on the rating for a specific informon for the users that come under the manager's domain; and (5) passing the estimations from function 4 down to either a child-node mindpool or, if the manager is an end node in the hierarchy, to the respective user's CWF, for producing the user's predicted rating. Function 4 also can include combining the estimations received from the manager's parent node, and Uncertainty Predictions can be estimated based on sample size, standard deviation, etc. Furthermore, as alluded to above, users can be allowed to belong to more than one mindpool if they don't fit precisely into one mindpool but have multiple views regarding the conceptual domain of the informon. Also, it is preferred that lateral communication be provided between peer managers who have similar users beneath them to share estimation information. When a rating comes in from a user, it can be passed to the immediate manager(s) node above that user. It is preferred that the manager(s) first decide whether the rating will effect its current estimation or whether the statistics should be passed upward to a parent-node. If the manager estimation would change by an amount above an empirically-derived minimum threshold, then the manager should pass that estimation down to all of its child-nodes. In the event that the compiled statistics are changed by more than another minimum threshold amount, then the compiled statistics should be passed to the manager's parent-node, if any, and the process recurses upward and downward in the hierarchy.
Because no mindpool manager is required to have accurate information, but just an estimation of the rating and an uncertainty level, any manager may respond with a simple average of all previous documents, and with a higher degree of uncertainty, if none of its child-nodes has any rating information yet. The preferred distributed strategy tends to reduce the communication needed between processors, and the computation tends to be pooled, thereby eliminating a substantial degree of redundancy. Using this distributed strategy, the estimations tend to settle to the extent that the updating of other nodes, and the other users predictions are minimized. Therefore, as the number of informons and users becomes large, the computation and prediction updates grow as the sum of the number of informons and the number of users, rather than the product of the number of informons and the number of users. In addition, incremental updates can be accomplished by the passing of estimations up and down the hierarchy. Incremental updates of rating predictions continue to move until the prediction becomes stable due to the large sample size. The distributed division of users can reduce the effects of independent assumption violations. In the previous example with the B-Team of ten users, the B-Team can be organized as a particular mindpool. With the additional ratings from each of the B-Team members, the estimation from the B-Team mindpool typically does not change significantly because of the exact correlation between the members of that mindpool. This single estimation then can be combined with other estimations to achieve the desired result, regardless of how many B-Team members have read the article at any given time.
The mindpool hierarchies can be created by either computer-guided or human-guided methods. If the hierarchy creation is human-guided, there often is a natural breakdown of people based on information such as job position, common interests, or any other information that is known about them. Where the mindpool hierarchy is created automatically, the previously described measure of the collaborative input relationship between users can be employed in a standard hierarchical clustering algorithm to produce each group of users or nodes in the mindpool hierarchy. Such standard hierarchical clustering algorithms can include, for example, the agglomerative method, or the divide-and-conquer method. A skilled artisan would recognize that many other techniques also are available for incrementally-adjusting the clusters as new information is collected. Typically, clustering is intended to (1) bring together users whose rating information is clearly not independent; and (2) produce mindpool estimations that are substantially independent among one another.
Estimations are made in a manner similar to other estimations described herein. For example, for each user or sub-mindpool (sub-informant), a similarity between the sub-informant and the centroid of the mindpool can be computed in order to determine how relevant the sub-informant is in computing the estimation. Uncertainty estimators also are associated with these sub-informants, so that they can be weighted with respect to their reliability in providing the most accurate estimation. Optionally, the informon under evaluation can be used to modulate the relevancy of a sub-informant. This type of evaluation also can take advantage of the two previously-determined collaborative information relationship components, thereby tending to magnify relationships that are stronger for particular types of informons than for others. Once a suitable set of weights are established for each user within a mindpool for a particular informon, a simple weighted-average can be used to make the estimation. It is preferred that the "simple" weighted average used be more conservative regarding input information that a simple independent linear regression. Also, the overall Uncertainty can be derived from the Uncertainty Predictions of the sub-informants, in a manner similar to the production of other uncertainty combination methods described above. Approximations can be made by pre-computing all terms that do not change significantly, based on the particular informon, or the subset of actual ratings given so far to the mindpool manager.
As stated previously, the correlated-feature error-correction units (CFECUs) are intended to detect irregularities or statistical exceptions. Indeed, two objectives of the CFECU units are to (1) find non-linear exceptions to the general structure of the three aforementioned types of inputs (SFI, UFI, and CI); and (2) find particular combinations of informon sub-features that statistically stand out as having special structure which is not captured by the rest of the general model; and (3) trigger an additional signal to the CFECU's conditions are met, in order to reduce prediction error. The following exemplifies CFECU operation:
User B's Avg. Rating of
of Informons About
Author A's
Other Authors
by Topic
User B's number of
Informons Read About
Average over
Author A's
Other Authors
In this example, it is desired that author A's informon D about gardening have a high predicted rating for user B. However, because the average rating for author A by user B is only 1.69, and the average rating for the gardening concept is only 1.68, a three-part model (SFI-UFI-CI) that does not evaluate the informon features in combination would tend to not rank informon D very highly. In this case, the first CFECU would first find sources of error in past examples. This could include using the three-part model against the known examples that user B has rated so far. In this example, seven articles that user B has rated, have an average rating of 4.5, though even the three-part model only predicts a rating of about 1.68. When such a large error appears, and has statistical strength due to the number of examples with the common characteristics of, for example, the same author and topic, a CFECU is created to identify that this exception to the three-part model has been triggered and that a correction signal is needed. Second, it is preferred to index the new CFECU into a database so that, when triggering features appear in an informon, for example, author and topic, the correction signal is sent into the appropriate CWF. One method which can be used to effect the first step is a cascade correlation neural network, in which the neural net finds new connection neural net units to progressively reduce the prediction error. Another method is to search through each informon that has been rated but whose predicted rating has a high error, and storing the informons profile.
When "enough" informons have been found with high error and common characteristics, the common characteristics can be joined together as a candidate for a new CFECU. Next, the candidate can be tested on all the samples, whether they have a high prediction or a low prediction error associated with them. Then, the overall error change (reduction or increase) for all of the examples can be computed to determine if the CFECU should be added to the informon profile. If the estimated error reduction is greater than a minimum threshold level, the CFECU can be added to the profile. As successful CFECU are discovered for users' profiles, they also can be added to a database of CFECU's that may be useful for analyzing other profiles. If a particular CFECU has a sufficiently broad application, it can be moved up in the filtering process, so that it is computed for every entity once. Also, the particular CFECU can be included in the representation that is computed in the pre-processing stage as a new feature. In general, the estimation of the predicted rating from a particular CFECU can be made by taking the average of those informons for which the CFECU responds. Also, the Uncertainty can be chosen such that the CFECU signal optimally outweighs the other signals being sent to the CWF. One method of self-optimization that can be employed is, for example, the gradient descent method, although a skilled artisan would recognize that other appropriate optimization methods may be used.
Many alterations and modifications may be made by those having ordinary skill in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Therefore, it must be understood that the illustrated embodiments have been set forth only for the purposes of example, and that it should not be taken as limiting the invention as defined by the following claims. The following claims are, therefore, to be read to include not only the combination of elements which are literally set forth but all equivalent elements for performing substantially the same function in substantially the same way to obtain substantially the same result. The claims are thus to be understood to include what is specifically illustrated and described above, what is conceptually equivalent, and also what incorporates the essential idea of the invention.
Rating given
avg (author)
(all auth)
|Cited Patent
|Filing date
|Publication date
|Apr 4, 1996
|Feb 2, 1999
|Lang; Andrew K.
|Information system and method for filtering a massive flow of information entities to meet user information classification needs
|Nov 5, 1998
|Nov 9, 1999
|Lycos, Inc.
|System and method employing individual user content-based data and user collaborative feedback data to evaluate the content of an information entity in a large information communication network
|Citing Patent
|Filing date
|Publication date
|Apr 1, 1999
|Sep 10, 2002
|Bar Ilan University Nds Limited
|Apparatus and method for agent-based feedback collection in a data broadcasting network
|May 15, 2000
|Aug 5, 2003
|Clubcom, Inc.
|System and method for providing demographically targeted information
|Feb 12, 1999
|Oct 7, 2003
|Yahoo! Inc.
|Search engine using sales and revenue to weight search results
|Feb 8, 2000
|Nov 4, 2003
|Microsoft Corporation
|Retrofitting recommender system for achieving predetermined performance requirements
|Apr 21, 2003
|Dec 30, 2003
|Clubcom, Inc.
|System and method for providing demographically targeted information
|Feb 29, 2000
|Jan 6, 2004
|Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd.
|Collaborative work support system
|May 5, 1999
|Jan 20, 2004
|Xerox Corporation
|System for providing document change information for a community of users
|Jul 31, 2001
|Mar 30, 2004
|Logika Corporation
|Method and system for creating vertical search engines
|Oct 22, 2001
|Aug 10, 2004
|Lycos, Inc.
|Information filter system and method for integrated content-based and collaborative/adaptive feedback queries
|Apr 7, 2000
|Oct 5, 2004
|Arif Diwan
|Systems and methods for generating customized bundles of information
|Dec 22, 1999
|May 10, 2005
|Accenture Llp
|System, method and article of manufacture for a user programmable diary interface link
|Sep 14, 2001
|Nov 8, 2005
|Fernandez Dennis S
|Adaptive direct transaction for network client group
|Mar 1, 2002
|Nov 29, 2005
|Intelligenxia, Inc.
|Concept-based method and system for dynamically analyzing unstructured information
|Oct 25, 2002
|Apr 18, 2006
|Engage Thoughtware
|Methods and systems for creating a virtual work environment within which to develop ideas and perform intellectual work
|Mar 31, 1999
|May 2, 2006
|International Business Machines Corporation
|Optimization of system performance based on communication relationship
|Aug 23, 2002
|May 23, 2006
|International Business Machines Corporation
|Method, system, and computer program product for outlier detection
|Mar 28, 2001
|Jul 18, 2006
|Ebay, Inc.
|Graphical user interface for filtering a population of items
|Oct 14, 2003
|Jan 16, 2007
|America Online, Inc.
|Search enhancement system and method having rankings, explicitly specified by the user, based upon applicability and validity of search parameters in regard to a subject matter
|Mar 19, 2003
|Mar 20, 2007
|Intelligenxia, Inc.
|Method, system, and computer program product for concept-based multi-dimensional analysis of unstructured information
|Dec 30, 2002
|Jun 10, 2008
|Aol Llc
|Sharing on-line media experiences
|Jan 22, 2004
|Jun 17, 2008
|International Business Machines Corporation
|Process for distributed production and peer-to-peer consolidation of subjective ratings across ad-hoc networks
|Mar 21, 2002
|Jul 29, 2008
|Richard Reisman
|Method and apparatus for collecting, aggregating and providing post-sale market data for an item
|Jun 20, 2006
|Dec 16, 2008
|Aol Llc
|Search enhancement system and method having rankings, explicitly specified by the user, based upon applicability and validity of search parameters in regard to a subject matter
|Dec 5, 2005
|May 19, 2009
|Ixreveal, Inc.
|Concept-based categorization of unstructured objects
|Nov 3, 2009
|Colligo Networks, Inc.
|Method for context based discovery and filtering of portable collaborative networks
|Oct 3, 2003
|Dec 1, 2009
|Ixreveal, Inc.
|System and method for concept based analysis of unstructured data
|Oct 14, 2003
|Dec 29, 2009
|Aol Llc
|Search enhancement system with information from a selected source
|Jan 30, 2007
|Feb 2, 2010
|Ranking search results presented to on-line users as a function of perspectives of relationships trusted by the users
|Mar 5, 2004
|Mar 9, 2010
|Wai Wu
|Method and system for matching entities in an auction
|Jan 22, 2007
|Mar 9, 2010
|Ixreveal, Inc.
|Method and computer program product for converting ontologies into concept semantic networks
|Mar 16, 2010
|Logika Corporation
|Method and system for creating vertical search engines
|Oct 21, 2003
|Apr 13, 2010
|The Nielsen Company (Us), Llc
|Methods and apparatus for fusing databases
|May 11, 2006
|May 18, 2010
|Ebay Inc.
|Graphical user interface for filtering a population of items
|May 31, 2000
|Jun 1, 2010
|Leglise Claude M
|Remotely managing and controlling a consumer appliance
|Dec 12, 2008
|Jun 15, 2010
|Aol Inc.
|System and method for general search parameters having quantized relevance values that are associated with a user
|Jul 27, 2010
|Qurio Holdings, Inc.
|Methods, systems, and products for classifying peer systems
|Aug 3, 2010
|Dennis Fernandez
|Adaptive direct transaction for networked client group
|Feb 22, 2006
|Aug 17, 2010
|Qurio Holdings, Inc.
|Methods, systems, and products for characterizing target systems
|Aug 17, 2010
|Jericho Systems Corporation
|Method and system for dynamically implementing an enterprise resource policy
|Oct 11, 2006
|Aug 31, 2010
|Ixreveal, Inc.
|System, method and computer program product for concept-based searching and analysis
|May 24, 2004
|Sep 7, 2010
|Jericho Systems Corporation
|Method and system for selecting content items to be presented to a viewer
|Sep 21, 2010
|Chacha Search, Inc.
|Method, system, and computer readable storage for affiliate group searching
|Sep 21, 2010
|Qurio Holdings, Inc.
|Systems and methods for discovering, creating, using, and managing social network circuits
|Feb 9, 2007
|Oct 5, 2010
|Ricoh Co., Ltd.
|Secure and efficient methods for logging and synchronizing data exchanges
|Dec 5, 2005
|Nov 9, 2010
|Ixreveal, Inc.
|Concept-based trends and exceptions tracking
|Dec 7, 2010
|Ricoh Co. Ltd.
|Coordination and tracking of workflows
|Dec 7, 2010
|West Services, Inc.
|Relationship collaboration system
|Feb 8, 2011
|International Business Machines Corporation
|Process for distributed production and peer-to-peer consolidation of subjective ratings across Ad-Hoc networks
|Dec 11, 2006
|Feb 8, 2011
|Qurio Holdings, Inc.
|System and method for social network trust assessment
|Dec 5, 2005
|Feb 15, 2011
|Ixreveal, Inc.
|Concept-based searching of unstructured objects
|Feb 22, 2011
|Wai Wu
|Telephony control system with intelligent call routing
|Feb 22, 2011
|Tambar Arts Ltd.
|Quality filter for the internet
|Sep 14, 2001
|Mar 1, 2011
|Dennis S. Fernandez
|Integrated medical sensor and messaging system and method
|Sep 18, 2006
|Mar 29, 2011
|Toby Heller
|Agent training sensitive call routing system
|Oct 24, 2005
|Apr 12, 2011
|Leader Technologies, Inc.
|Radio/telephony interoperability system
|Jul 9, 2004
|May 24, 2011
|Ricoh, Ltd.
|Synchronizing distributed work through document logs
|Jun 28, 2011
|Ricoh Co., Ltd.
|Always on and updated operation for document logs
|Aug 29, 2006
|Jul 5, 2011
|Steven Mark Hoffberg
|Intelligent electronic appliance system and method
|Feb 21, 2007
|Aug 23, 2011
|Ricoh Co., Ltd.
|Trustworthy timestamps and certifiable clocks using logs linked by cryptographic hashes
|Sep 6, 2011
|Ricoh Co., Ltd.
|Refining based on log content
|Sep 13, 2011
|Method of presenting search results to a user of a social network site
|Oct 11, 2011
|Richard Reisman
|Method and apparatus for collecting, aggregating and providing post-sale market data for an item
|Nov 13, 2006
|Oct 25, 2011
|Hoffberg Steven M
|Ergonomic man-machine interface incorporating adaptive pattern recognition based control system
|Nov 15, 2011
|Jericho Systems Corporation
|Method and system for selecting content items to be presented to a viewer
|Dec 29, 2005
|Jan 10, 2012
|Ricoh Co., Ltd.
|Log integrity verification
|Jul 31, 2008
|Jan 10, 2012
|The United States Of America As Represented By The Secretary Of The Navy
|Fast algorithms and metrics for comparing hierarchical clustering information trees and numerical vectors
|Dec 27, 2006
|Mar 13, 2012
|Qurio Holdings, Inc.
|System and method for user classification based on social network aware content analysis
|Jan 3, 2008
|May 8, 2012
|Choicestream, Inc.
|Music recommendation system using a personalized choice set
|May 22, 2012
|Ricoh Co., Ltd.
|Method and apparatus for automatically publishing content based identifiers
|May 29, 2012
|Stragent, Llc
|Systems and methods for packaging and distributing information
|Dec 10, 2003
|Jun 5, 2012
|Leaper Technologies, Inc.
|Context instantiated application protocol
|Jun 12, 2012
|Chacha Search, Inc.
|Method and system for improvement of relevance of search results
|Aug 14, 2012
|Gartner, Inc.
|Interactive peer directory
|Sep 25, 2012
|Qurio Holdings, Inc.
|System and method for social network trust assessment
|Oct 30, 2012
|Wai Wu
|Intelligent communication routing system and method
|Feb 5, 2013
|Hoffberg Steven M
|Alarm system controller and a method for controlling an alarm system
|Feb 5, 2013
|Xerox Corporation
|Methods and systems for interactive classification of objects
|Sep 7, 2010
|Mar 12, 2013
|Commvault Systems, Inc.
|Legal compliance, electronic discovery and electronic document handling of online and offline copies of data
|Apr 2, 2013
|Microsoft Corporation
|Related links recommendation
|Apr 2, 2013
|Ricoh Co., Ltd.
|Trustworthy timestamps and certifiable clocks using logs linked by cryptographic hashes
|May 7, 2013
|Jericho Systems, Inc.
|Method and system for selecting advertisements to be presented to a viewer
|Aug 11, 2003
|Jun 4, 2013
|Dropbox, Inc.
|Determining the relevance of offers
|Apr 29, 2011
|Jun 11, 2013
|Zachary C. LESAVICH
|Method and system for creating vertical search engines with cloud computing networks
|Mar 7, 2008
|Jun 11, 2013
|Facebook, Inc.
|Sharing on-line media experiences
|Nov 8, 2010
|Jun 25, 2013
|Waldeck Technology, Llc
|Dynamic profile slice
|Aug 31, 2006
|Jul 2, 2013
|Ricoh Co., Ltd
|Paper-based document logging
|Aug 13, 2009
|Jul 9, 2013
|Dennis Fernandez
|Adaptive direct transaction for network client group
|Oct 31, 2008
|Oct 1, 2013
|Thalveg Data Flow Llc
|System and method for efficiently providing a recommendation
|Aug 19, 2011
|Oct 8, 2013
|Teleshuttle Tech2, Llc
|Method and apparatus for collecting data for an item
|Apr 21, 2010
|Oct 8, 2013
|Waldeck Technology, Llc
|Profile construction using location-based aggregate profile information
|Sep 29, 2006
|Oct 8, 2013
|Qurio Holdings, Inc.
|Virtual peer for a content sharing system
|Feb 3, 2010
|Oct 15, 2013
|Stragent, Llc
|Systems and methods for packaging and distributing information
|Feb 11, 2010
|Oct 15, 2013
|Jericho Systems Corporation
|Method and system for dynamically implementing an enterprise resource policy
|Jan 26, 2009
|Nov 5, 2013
|Chacha Search, Inc
|Method and system for access to restricted resources
|Oct 29, 2003
|Nov 19, 2013
|Ixreveal, Inc.
|Concept-based method and system for dynamically analyzing results from search engines
|Sep 30, 2011
|Dec 17, 2013
|Commvault Systems, Inc.
|System and method for archiving objects in an information store
|Oct 28, 2010
|Dec 17, 2013
|West Services, Inc.
|Relationship collaboration system
|Jun 29, 2007
|Jan 7, 2014
|Microsoft Corporation
|Container reputation
|Jul 9, 2013
|Feb 11, 2014
|I/P Engine, Inc.
|Content distribution system and method
|Jun 20, 2012
|Feb 25, 2014
|Gartner, Inc.
|Bimodal recommendation engine for recommending items and peers
|Aug 20, 2013
|Mar 25, 2014
|I/P Engine, Inc.
|Content distribution system and method
|Aug 20, 2013
|Apr 1, 2014
|I/P Engine, Inc.
|Content distribution system and method
|Aug 20, 2008
|Apr 15, 2014
|Yahoo! Inc.
|Advertising in an online community
|May 8, 2012
|Apr 15, 2014
|Chacha Search, Inc
|Method and system for improvement of relevance of search results
|Aug 20, 2008
|May 6, 2014
|Yahoo! Inc.
|Information sharing in an online community
|Sep 3, 2009
|May 13, 2014
|Commvault Systems, Inc.
|Image level copy or restore, such as image level restore without knowledge of data object metadata
|Aug 16, 2010
|May 13, 2014
|Chacha Search, Inc.
|Method, system, and computer readable storage for affiliate group searching
|Sep 8, 2009
|May 13, 2014
|Colligo Networks, Inc.
|Method for context based discovery and filtering of portable collaborative networks
|Jul 30, 2012
|May 27, 2014
|Qurio Holdings, Inc.
|System and method for social network trust assessment
|Apr 8, 2013
|Jun 3, 2014
|Jericho Systems Corporation
|Method and system for selecting content items to be presented to a viewer
|Jun 18, 2008
|Jul 1, 2014
|Commvault Systems, Inc.
|Data protection scheduling, such as providing a flexible backup window in a data protection system
|Jun 29, 2012
|Jul 15, 2014
|Commvault Systems, Inc.
|Managing copies of data
|Mar 15, 2013
|Sep 9, 2014
|Wai Wu
|Intelligent communication routing
|Sep 26, 2008
|Sep 16, 2014
|Dennis S. Fernandez
|Adaptive direct transaction for network client group
|Jun 8, 2010
|Sep 16, 2014
|Sony Corporation
|Content recommendation system, content recommendation method, content recommendation device, and information storage medium
|Jun 29, 2007
|Sep 16, 2014
|Microsoft Corporation
|Gathering statistics based on container exchange
|Mar 31, 2011
|Sep 30, 2014
|Commvault Systems, Inc.
|Restoring computing environments, such as autorecovery of file systems at certain points in time
|Sep 13, 2011
|Sep 30, 2014
|Method of ranking search results presented to a user of a social network site
|Oct 15, 2008
|Nov 11, 2014
|Chacha Search, Inc.
|Method and system of managing and using profile information
|Jan 8, 2013
|Nov 18, 2014
|Blanding Hovenweep, Llc
|Adaptive pattern recognition based controller apparatus and method and human-interface therefore
|May 18, 2007
|Dec 2, 2014
|Ricoh Co., Ltd.
|Synchronizing distributed work through document logs
|Dec 24, 2008
|Dec 9, 2014
|Colligo Networks, Inc.
|Method for discovering and discriminating devices on local collaborative networks to facilitate collaboration among users
|Jun 26, 2012
|Dec 23, 2014
|Gartner, Inc.
|Interactive peer directory with question router
|Nov 22, 2004
|Jan 6, 2015
|Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L. P.
|System and method for discovering knowledge communities
|Jul 25, 2011
|Jan 6, 2015
|International Business Machines Corporation
|Efficiently sharing user selected information with a set of determined recipients
|Oct 30, 2013
|Mar 3, 2015
|Steven Hoffberg
|Agent training sensitive call routing system
|May 17, 2010
|Mar 3, 2015
|Ebay Inc.
|Graphical user interface for filtering a population of items
|Mar 28, 2007
|Mar 31, 2015
|Ricoh Co., Ltd.
|Method and apparatus for recording associations with logs
|Mar 12, 2012
|Mar 31, 2015
|Oracle International Corporation
|Automatic adaptive content delivery
|Oct 17, 2012
|Jun 2, 2015
|I/P Engine, Inc.
|Content distribution system and method
|Sep 26, 2013
|Jun 9, 2015
|Waldeck Technology, Llc
|Profile construction using location-based aggregate profile information
|Sep 23, 2014
|Jul 28, 2015
|Commvault Systems, Inc.
|Restoring computing environments, such as autorecovery of file systems at certain points in time
|Jun 1, 2015
|Aug 25, 2015
|I/P Engine, Inc.
|Content distribution system and method
|Jun 19, 2008
|Sep 8, 2015
|Commvault Systems, Inc
|Data storage resource allocation by performing abbreviated resource checks based on relative chances of failure of the data storage resources to determine whether data storage requests would fail
|Dec 25, 2014
|Sep 15, 2015
|Centipede Semi Ltd.
|Run-time code parallelization with monitoring of repetitive instruction sequences during branch mis-prediction
|Dec 17, 2013
|Oct 20, 2015
|Commvault Systems, Inc.
|System and method for archiving objects in an information store
|Dec 27, 2006
|Nov 24, 2015
|Qurio Holdings, Inc.
|System and method for classification of communication sessions in a social network
|Mar 4, 2015
|Dec 8, 2015
|Centipede Semi Ltd.
|Run-time code parallelization with approximate monitoring of instruction sequences
|Apr 14, 2009
|Jan 26, 2016
|Ureveal, Inc.
|Concept-based analysis of structured and unstructured data using concept inheritance
|Jan 8, 2013
|Feb 16, 2016
|Commvault Systems, Inc.
|Data storage resource allocation by employing dynamic methods and blacklisting resource request pools
|Aug 6, 2013
|Mar 1, 2016
|Commvault Systems, Inc.
|Storage of application specific profiles correlating to document versions
|Sep 11, 2014
|Mar 15, 2016
|Microsoft Technology Licensing, Llc
|Gathering statistics based on container exchange
|Dec 22, 2014
|May 24, 2016
|Centipede Semi Ltd.
|Run-time code parallelization with continuous monitoring of repetitive instruction sequences
|Jul 9, 2013
|May 24, 2016
|Quantum Stream Inc.
|Content distribution system and method
|Dec 20, 2007
|Jul 12, 2016
|Victor David Uy
|Method and apparatus for scoring electronic documents
|Aug 30, 2013
|Aug 30, 2016
|Jericho Systems Corporation
|System for managing access to protected resources
|Aug 30, 2013
|Sep 6, 2016
|Jericho Systems Corporation
|System for managing access to protected resources
|Oct 21, 2014
|Sep 13, 2016
|Commvault Systems, Inc.
|Using an enhanced data agent to restore backed up data across autonomous storage management systems
|Aug 21, 2015
|Sep 20, 2016
|Quantum Stream Inc.
|Content distribution system and method
|Mar 11, 2013
|Oct 4, 2016
|Commvault Systems, Inc.
|Single index to query multiple backup formats
|May 10, 2001
|Apr 18, 2002
|Ken Lang
|Automated reputation/trust service
|Dec 22, 2000
|Jun 27, 2002
|Aley Fredrick J.
|Methods and systems for integrating marketing, production, and finance
|Oct 22, 2001
|Aug 29, 2002
|Lang Andrew K.
|Collaborative/adaptive search engine
|Feb 27, 2002
|Nov 21, 2002
|Ramer Jon E.
|Dynamic configuration of context-sensitive personal sites and membership channels
|Mar 31, 1999
|Nov 28, 2002
|Jonathan P. Brezin
|Optimization of system performance based on communication relationship
|Jun 4, 2002
|Dec 12, 2002
|Shupps Eric A.
|System and method for testing an application
|Jan 31, 2002
|Jan 9, 2003
|Yasuhiko Inaba
|Profile management method for information filtering and profile management program
|Aug 14, 2001
|Feb 20, 2003
|International Business Machines Corporation
|Collaborative content programming
|Jun 4, 2002
|Feb 27, 2003
|Shupps Eric A.
|System and process for constructing and analyzing profiles for an application
|Oct 25, 2002
|Jun 5, 2003
|Harris Douglas O.
|Methods and systems for creating a virtual work environment within which to develop ideas and perform intellectual work
|Jan 14, 2002
|Jul 17, 2003
|Blackstock Michael A.
|Method for discovering and discriminating devices on local collaborative networks to facilitate collaboration among users
|Feb 21, 2003
|Sep 25, 2003
|Xerox Corporation
|Methods and systems for interactive classification of objects
|Jul 25, 2002
|Jan 29, 2004
|Bartram Linda Ruth
|Method for context based discovery and filtering of portable collaborative networks
|Feb 28, 2003
|Feb 12, 2004
|Avue Technologies, Inc.
|System and method for strategic workforce management and content engineering
|Aug 23, 2002
|Feb 26, 2004
|Selby David A.
|Method, system, and computer program product for outlier detection
|Jan 27, 2003
|Jun 24, 2004
|Robert Hitzelberger
|Method for evaluating processes with a number of characteristic features
|Aug 19, 2003
|Sep 2, 2004
|Jayendu Patel
|Statistical personalized recommendation system
|Jan 9, 2004
|Oct 14, 2004
|Roegner Michael W.
|Method and system for dynamically implementing an enterprise resource policy
|May 24, 2004
|Dec 30, 2004
|Roegner Michael W.
|Method and system for dynamically and specifically targeting marketing
|Aug 11, 2003
|Feb 17, 2005
|Paul Graham
|Determining the relevance of offers
|Sep 10, 2004
|Mar 24, 2005
|Contact Network Corporation
|Relationship collaboration system
|Oct 14, 2003
|Apr 14, 2005
|Fish Edmund J.
|Search enhancement system with information from a selected source
|Oct 14, 2003
|May 5, 2005
|Fish Edmund J.
|Search enhancement system having personal search parameters
|Aug 27, 2004
|May 26, 2005
|Arif Diwan
|Systems and methods for packaging and distributing information
|Jan 22, 2004
|Jul 28, 2005
|International Business Machines Corporation
|Process for distributed production and peer-to-peer consolidation of subjective ratings across ad-hoc networks
|Jul 9, 2004
|Jan 12, 2006
|Wolff Gregory J
|Synchronizing distributed work through document logs
|Aug 23, 2005
|Jan 12, 2006
|Colligo Networks, Inc.
|Method for discovering and discriminating devices on local collaborative networks to facilitate collaboration among users
|Dec 15, 2004
|Mar 30, 2006
|Nam Taek Y
|Method and apparatus of selectively blocking harmful P2P traffic in network
|Nov 22, 2004
|May 25, 2006
|Lada Adamic
|System and method for discovering knowledge communities
|May 11, 2006
|Aug 31, 2006
|Ebay Inc.
|Graphical user interface for filtering a population of items
|Jul 18, 2006
|Nov 16, 2006
|Choicestream, A Delaware Corporation
|Statistical personalized recommendation system
|Jun 28, 2006
|Dec 28, 2006
|Patel Jayendu S
|Methods and apparatus for a statistical system for targeting advertisements
|Jun 20, 2006
|Jan 4, 2007
|Fish Edmund J
|Search enhancement system having ranked general search parameters
|Apr 21, 2006
|Feb 1, 2007
|Indra Heckenbach
|System and method for organizing repositories of information and publishing in a personalized manner
|Jan 4, 2006
|Mar 15, 2007
|Microsoft Corporation
|Internet content filtering
|Dec 20, 2005
|Jun 21, 2007
|Ask Jeeves, Inc.
|System and method for monitoring evolution over time of temporal content
|Dec 29, 2005
|Jul 5, 2007
|Wolff Gregory J
|Coordination and tracking of workflows
|Dec 29, 2005
|Jul 5, 2007
|Wolff Gregory J
|Refining based on log content
|Dec 29, 2005
|Jul 5, 2007
|Wolff Gregory J
|Always on and updated operation for document logs
|Dec 29, 2005
|Jul 5, 2007
|Wolff Gregory J
|Log integrity verification
|Jan 30, 2007
|Aug 23, 2007
|Method and system for assigning customer influence ranking scores to internet users
|Jan 30, 2007
|Sep 13, 2007
|Ranking search results presented to on-line users as a function of perspectives of relationships trusted by the users
|Jun 13, 2006
|Dec 13, 2007
|Pappas Harry J
|System and Method for Distributing a Multimedia Presentation
|Nov 18, 2003
|Jan 31, 2008
|David Gang
|Buddy Share
|Aug 7, 2007
|Feb 7, 2008
|Chacha Search, Inc.
|Method, system, and computer readable storage for affiliate group searching
|Aug 30, 2006
|Mar 6, 2008
|Brian Kalinowski
|Online video/chat system
|Aug 31, 2006
|Mar 6, 2008
|Ricoh Co., Ltd.
|Paper-based document logging
|Sep 29, 2006
|Apr 3, 2008
|Qurio Holdings, Inc.
|Virtual peer for a content sharing system
|Mar 7, 2008
|Jun 26, 2008
|Aol Llc
|Sharing on-line media experiences
|Apr 7, 2008
|Jul 31, 2008
|International Business Machines Corporation
|Process for Distributed Production and Peer-To-Peer Consolidation of Subjective Ratings Across Ad-Hoc Networks
|May 14, 2008
|Aug 28, 2008
|International Business Machines Corporation
|Process for Distributed Production and Peer-To-Peer Consolidation of Subjective Ratings Across Ad-Hoc Networks
|Oct 21, 2003
|Sep 4, 2008
|Jerome Samson
|"Methods and Apparatus for Fusing Databases"
|Mar 28, 2007
|Oct 2, 2008
|Hart Peter E
|Method and Apparatus for Recording Transactions with a Portable Logging Device
|Apr 25, 2008
|Oct 30, 2008
|Chacha Search, Inc.
|Method and system for improvement of relevance of search results
|Nov 1, 2007
|Nov 20, 2008
|Worldvuer, Inc.
|Method and system for searching using image based tagging
|May 29, 2007
|Dec 4, 2008
|Tasteindex.Com Llc
|Taste network content targeting
|May 29, 2007
|Dec 4, 2008
|Tasteindex.Com Llc
|Taste network system and method
|May 29, 2007
|Dec 4, 2008
|Tasteindex.Com Llc
|Taste network widget system
|Jun 29, 2007
|Jan 1, 2009
|Microsoft Corporation
|Container Reputation
|Jun 29, 2007
|Jan 1, 2009
|Microsoft Corporation
|Web Page-Container Interactions
|Jun 29, 2007
|Jan 1, 2009
|Microsoft Corporation
|Gathering Statistics Based on Container Exchange
|Jul 2, 2008
|Feb 5, 2009
|Kristina Butvydas Bard
|Qualitative search engine based on factors of consumer trust specification
|Oct 31, 2008
|Mar 5, 2009
|Thalveg Data Flow Llc
|System and Method for Efficiently Providing a Recommendation
|Sep 7, 2007
|Mar 12, 2009
|Tambar Arts Ltd.
|Quality filter for the internet
|Sep 6, 2007
|Mar 12, 2009
|Antonio Savona
|Systems and methods for clustering information
|Oct 15, 2008
|Apr 16, 2009
|Chacha Search, Inc.
|Method and system of managing and using profile information
|Dec 12, 2008
|Jun 4, 2009
|Aol Llc
|System and method for general search parameters having quantized relevance values that are associated with a user
|Dec 24, 2008
|Jul 23, 2009
|Colligo Networks, Inc., A Canadian Corporation
|Method for discovering and discriminating devices on local collaborative networks to facilitate collaboration among users
|Jan 26, 2009
|Jul 30, 2009
|Chacha Search, Inc.
|Method and system for access to restricted resources
|Apr 28, 2009
|Aug 20, 2009
|Choicestream, Inc.
|Statistical personalized recommendation system
|Dec 24, 2008
|Sep 3, 2009
|Colligo Newworks, Inc., A Canadian Corporation
|System And Method For Interactive Instant Networking
|Aug 20, 2008
|Feb 25, 2010
|Yahoo! Inc.
|Advertising in an online community
|Aug 20, 2008
|Feb 25, 2010
|Yahoo! Inc.
|Information sharing in an online community
|Mar 18, 2010
|Lad Kamleshkumar K
|Transferring or migrating portions of data objects, such as block-level data migration or chunk-based data migration
|Jan 29, 2008
|Apr 15, 2010
|Cuttner Craig D
|Method and system for providing 'what's next' data
|Dec 17, 2009
|Apr 15, 2010
|Method of Presenting Search Results to a User of a Social Network Site
|Nov 10, 2008
|May 13, 2010
|At&T Intellectual Property I, L.P.
|Portable Client-Side Settings for a Multimedia Content Distribution Network
|Dec 2, 2009
|Jun 10, 2010
|Gartner, Inc.
|Interactive peer directory
|Sep 8, 2009
|Jun 10, 2010
|Colligo Networks, Inc.
|Method For Context Based Discovery And Filtering Of Portable Collaborative Networks
|Feb 3, 2010
|Jun 17, 2010
|Stragent, Llc
|Systems And Methods For Packaging And Distributing Information
|Feb 3, 2010
|Jun 17, 2010
|Stragent, Llc
|Systems And Methods For Packaging And Distributing Information
|Feb 11, 2010
|Jun 24, 2010
|Jericho Systems Corporation
|Method and system for dynamically implementing an enterprise resource policy
|Feb 19, 2009
|Aug 19, 2010
|Wei Chu
|Personalized recommendations on dynamic content
|Mar 17, 2010
|Aug 26, 2010
|Avue Technologies Corporation
|System and Method for Strategic Workforce Management and Content Engineering
|Sep 9, 2010
|Ebay Inc.
|Graphical user interface for filtering a population of items
|Dec 20, 2007
|Oct 7, 2010
|Victor David Uy
|Method and apparatus for scoring electronic documents
|Apr 7, 2009
|Oct 7, 2010
|De Goes John A
|Real-time content collaboration
|Dec 9, 2010
|Roegner Michael W
|Method and system for selecting content items to be presented to a viewer
|Aug 30, 2010
|Mar 17, 2011
|Choicestream, Inc.
|Personalized advertising and recommendation
|Sep 7, 2010
|Apr 21, 2011
|Brian Brockway
|Legal compliance, electronic discovery and electronic document handling of online and offline copies of data
|Oct 28, 2010
|Apr 28, 2011
|West Services, Inc.
|Relationship collaboration system
|May 12, 2011
|Qurio Holdings, Inc.
|System and method for social network trust assessment
|Feb 3, 2010
|Aug 4, 2011
|Gartner, Inc.
|Bi-model recommendation engine for recommending items and peers
|Aug 25, 2011
|Lesavich Zachary C
|Method and system for creating vertical search engines with cloud computing networks
|Oct 13, 2011
|Kristina Butvydas Bard
|Qualitative Search Engine Based On Factors Of Consumer Trust Specification
|Dec 8, 2011
|Katsu Saito
|Content recommendation system, content recommendation device, and content recommendation method
|Apr 28, 2010
|Feb 23, 2012
|Waldeck Technology, Llc
|System and method for profile tailoring in an aggregate profiling system
|Apr 21, 2010
|Feb 23, 2012
|Waldeck Technology, Llc
|Profile construction using location-based aggregate profile information
|Jun 8, 2010
|Apr 19, 2012
|Katsu Saito
|Content recommendation system, content recommendation method, content recommendation device, and information storage medium
|Aug 9, 2012
|Telefonaktiebolaget Lm Ericsson (Publ)
|Server System and Method for Network-Based Service Recommendation Enhancement
|Mar 12, 2012
|Sep 12, 2013
|Oracle International Corporation
|Automatic adaptive content delivery
|Aug 22, 2014
|Dec 11, 2014
|Method of Presenting Internet Search Results
|Feb 9, 2011
|Jan 8, 2014
|Server system and method for network-based service recommendation enhancement
|Jan 28, 2002
|Jan 2, 2003
|Hitachi, Ltd.
|Profile management method for information filtering and profile management program
|Jun 4, 2002
|Dec 12, 2002
|Sentiat Technologies, Inc.
|System and process for constructing and analyzing profiles for an application
|Jun 4, 2002
|Dec 4, 2003
|Sentiat Technologies Inc
|System and process for constructing and analyzing profiles for an application
|Jun 14, 2002
|Dec 27, 2002
|Apogee Networks
|Seneric data aggregation
|Aug 20, 2002
|Feb 27, 2003
|Apogee Networks
|Content ownership resolution
|Aug 20, 2002
|Apr 1, 2004
|Apogee Networks
|Content ownership resolution
|Oct 28, 2002
|May 8, 2003
|Engage Thoughtware, Llc.
|Methods and systems for creating a virtual work environment within which to develop ideas and perform intellectual work
|Oct 28, 2002
|Dec 24, 2003
|Engage Thoughtware Llc
|Methods and systems for creating a virtual work environment within which to develop ideas and perform intellectual work
|Nov 18, 2003
|Jun 3, 2004
|America Online, Inc.
|Sharing content based on prior sharing experience
|Nov 18, 2003
|Jul 21, 2005
|America Online Inc
|Sharing content based on prior sharing experience
|Apr 17, 2013
|Oct 23, 2014
|Telefonaktiebolaget L M Ericsson (Publ)
|Creating associations to a service subscriber
|U.S. Classification
|International Classification
|Cooperative Classification
|European Classification
|Sep 27, 1999
Owner name: LYCOS, INC., MASSACHUSETTS
Free format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST;ASSIGNORS:LANG, ANDREW K.;KOSAK, DONALD M.;REEL/FRAME:010266/0046;SIGNING DATES FROM 19990909 TO 19990915
|Apr 25, 2005
|Fee payment
Year of fee payment: 4
|Apr 23, 2009
|Fee payment
Year of fee payment: 8
|Jul 14, 2011
Owner name: HUDSON BAY MASTER FUND LTD., NEW YORK
Free format text: ASSIGNMENT FOR SECURITY - PATENTS;ASSIGNOR:SMART SEARCH LABS, INC.;REEL/FRAME:026590/0050
Effective date: 20110622
|Sep 15, 2011
Owner name: I/P ENGINE, INC., NEW YORK
Free format text: CHANGE OF NAME;ASSIGNOR:SMART SEARCH LABS, INC.;REEL/FRAME:026908/0763
Effective date: 20110914
|Aug 6, 2012
Owner name: HUDSON BAY MASTER FUND LTD., NEW YORK
Free format text: ASSIGNMENT FOR SECURITY;ASSIGNOR:I/P ENGINE INC. (F/K/A SMART SEARCH LABS, INC.);REEL/FRAME:028734/0794
Effective date: 20120802
|Aug 29, 2012
Owner name: I/P ENGINE, INC. (F/K/A SMART SEARCH LABS, INC.),
Free format text: RELEASE BY SECURED PARTY;ASSIGNOR:HUDSON BAY MASTER FUND LTD.;REEL/FRAME:028870/0408
Effective date: 20120828
|Apr 23, 2013
|Fee payment
Year of fee payment: 12
|Apr 7, 2016
Owner name: VRINGO, INC., NEW YORK
Free format text: RELEASE BY SECURED PARTY;ASSIGNOR:SILICON VALLEY BANK;REEL/FRAME:038380/0956
Effective date: 20160406