Data processing: artificial intelligence – Knowledge processing system
Reexamination Certificate
1999-07-27
2002-10-01
Black, Thomas (Department: 2121)
Data processing: artificial intelligence
Knowledge processing system
Reexamination Certificate
active
06460025
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a computer system, and deals more particularly with a method, system, and computer readable code for improving user exploration (i.e. navigation and browsing) through hierarchies of information. Entity relevance is calculated for the entities in the hierarchies, and this information is used to guide the user in his exploration.
2. Description of the Related Art
The continuing proliferation of electronic media has resulted in an explosion in the availability of electronic catalogs, such as those used for managing parts within corporations and for selling products to consumers. Accompanying this growth is the continued investigation and implementation of different browsing strategies that offer intuitive techniques to aid users when searching and navigating large spaces of information. Providing easy-to-use facilities for the end-user is a key factor in the successful deployment of an electronic catalog, especially in today's highly competitive environment.
Categories in an electronic catalog are often arranged hierarchically, forming a category hierarchy, where the nodes of the hierarchy represent categories and sub-categories. A category hierarchy typically represents an embodiment of a particular type of association among category nodes as well as between category nodes. This association may represent: classification, decomposition, generalization, etc. For example, in a classification-based category hierarchy, a category serves to classify its sub-categories. On the other hand, in a decomposition-based category hierarchy, a category serves as a composite of parts, represented by its sub-categories. (Hereinafter, the term “category” will be used to refer to both categories and sub-categories, unless otherwise stated.) An entity (e.g., product) associated with a category represents an instance of the category, and that instance is a representative of that category.
Within an electronic catalog, the categories themselves and their arrangement to one another are engineered so as to provide intuitive navigational benefits to the catalog user in search of products. The majority of electronic catalogs in popular use today (such as those which may be created using the Net.Commerce product available from the IBM Corporation) have some category structure (i.e., node hierarchy) under which parts or products are categorized.
FIG. 1A
depicts a simple example of a product category hierarchy
100
. The highest-level node
105
, or root, of the hierarchy indicates that this is a hierarchy of computers. The next level in the hierarchy has two nodes, “Workstation”
110
and “Server”
115
, where each of these nodes serves to more specifically classify different types of computers. The lowest level of the example hierarchy depicts two nodes organized under each of the Workstation and Server nodes, indicating that both of these categories have two sub-categories (
120
and
125
, and
130
and
135
, respectively). As will be obvious, the hierarchies of actual electronic catalogs are typically much more complex, having many more levels and many more nodes at each level, than the example shown in FIG.
1
A.
Use of a corporation's electronic catalogs may be limited to internal use within the corporation, or the catalogs may be designed for external use by customers. And, some electronic catalogs are used both internally and externally. An example of the internal use scenario is a catalog for parts inventory management, implemented using a bill-of-materials approach where a complex part corresponds to a high-level category, and the parts from which it is constructed then correspond to lower-level categories. An example of the external use scenario is the electronic catalogs which are becoming increasingly popular for electronic shopping using the Internet and World Wide Web (hereinafter, “Web”). These electronic catalogs appear in different forms and many different applications. Many on-line retailers offer an electronic version of their traditional printed catalog, such as those used for selling clothing, office supplies, etc. These electronic catalogs are typically organized using a category hierarchy similar to the index of the printed catalog, with which the retailer's customers are already familiar. Hierarchical categories are also commonly used for the increasingly-popular on-line auction services, where a vast array of products being offered at auction are organized into a hierarchy of categories to conveniently direct a shopper's attention to the items corresponding to his personal interest.
Electronic catalogs typically provide some form of search or navigation capability that users can employ in the location of parts or products. Search capabilities include entry of a specific item number, and keyword searches. Using this approach, a user may view a part or product directly, without regard to how it has been categorized. For example, if a user enters an item number corresponding to a particular model of desktop computer, he may be unaware that it has been categorized as a desktop computer, which is a type of workstation, which is a type of computer (using the example of FIG.
1
A). However, the absence of the categorization information is a drawback of this approach. Suppose, for example, that the user has incorrectly recorded the item number: an item number search will not enable him to locate the product he is interested in. Keyword searches can also be problematic, where complex Boolean relationships between keywords may be needed in order to successfully locate a specific product. Entering too few keywords may result in an overly broad and therefore unusable result, while entering too many may cause relevant products to be omitted. Without information about the category hierarchy, the user may not be able to easily refine his keyword search to use an appropriate set of keywords.
Categories may also be navigated in a hierarchical manner as the user looks for a part or product, or browsed hierarchically. Electronic catalogs employing catalog hierarchies are nearly always accompanied by some form of hierarchical navigation mechanism. Hierarchical navigation allows users to incrementally ascend and descend from node to node along the paths defining the hierarchy. Hierarchical navigation offers an alternative to search in the location of parts or products in an electronic catalog, essentially providing a roadmap through a catalog's information space where the user can view relationships among categories as he moves from node to node. If there are multiple hierarchies in the catalog, a user is given the opportunity to move to another hierarchy by selecting that hierarchy's root node and subsequently navigating from that point.
FIG. 1B
depicts the example category hierarchy of
FIG. 1A
, which has now been augmented with instances of several of the categories. These instances are specific products (types of computers, in this example), and are collectively referred to as the “product base”, denoted in
FIG. 1B
by element
150
. Instances in the general case (i.e. whether they are parts, products, etc.) within a hierarchy will be referred to hereinafter as “entities”, and the collection of entities will be referred to as the “entity base”. The user may hierarchically navigate this product categorization, for example, by beginning at the root node
105
, where he learns from the hierarchical structure
100
that the computers in this catalog are further organized into workstations and servers. Suppose the user is interested in a laptop computer. He will therefore select to navigate to the Workstation node
110
instead of to the Server node
115
. By his intuitive knowledge of computer descriptions, the user then realizes that the “Portable” category
125
is the next logical node for descending the hierarchy to find a laptop computer. Having reached a collection of entities
151
,
152
,
153
, the user may then choose to view detailed information about the particular com
Fohn Steffen Michael
Greef Arthur Reginald
Willenborg Donald Carl
Black Thomas
Clay A. Bruce
Doubet Marcia L.
Holmes Michael B.
International Business Machines - Corporation
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