Richard L Crouch

US Patent:

7610190, Oct 27, 2009

Filed:

Oct 15, 2003

Appl. No.:

10/684508

Inventors:

Livia Polanyi - Palo Alto CA, US
Martin H. Van Den Berg - Palo Alto CA, US
Giovanni Lorenzo Thione - San Francisco CA, US
Richard S. Crouch - Cupertino CA, US
Christopher D. Culy - Mountain View CA, US
David D. Ahn - Palo Alto CA, US

Assignee:

FUJI XEROX Co., Ltd. - Tokyo

International Classification:

G06F 17/27

US Classification:

704 9, 707 1, 707 3, 707 6, 715 12, 715201

Abstract:

Techniques are provided for segmenting text into categorized discourse constituents and attaching discourse constituents into a structural representation of discourse. Techniques for determining hybrid structural and non-structural summaries of a text are also provided. A text is segmented based on a theory of discourse analysis into at least a main discourse constituent containing spatio-temporal information about a single event in a possible world view. The discourse constituents are then inserted into a structural representation of discourse. Non-structural techniques are used to determine relevance scores and important discourse constituents are determined. Relevance scores are percolated through the structural representation of discourse to determine supporting preceding discourse constituents that preserve grammaticality. A hybrid text summary is then determined based on the structural representation of the discourse and relevance scores.

US Patent:

7801723, Sep 21, 2010

Filed:

Nov 30, 2004

Appl. No.:

10/999792

Inventors:

Ronald M. Kaplan - Palo Alto CA, US
Richard Crouch - Cupertino CA, US
Daniel G. Bobrow - Palo Alto CA, US

Assignee:

Palo Alto Research Center Incorporated - Palo Alto CA

International Classification:

G06F 17/27

US Classification:

704 9, 704 1, 704 10, 707736, 707767, 715254

Abstract:

Techniques are presented to determine user-interest sensitive condensations of a passage. One or more passages are selected and user interest information, condensation transformations and optional meaning distortion constraints are identified. The foci of user interest within the selected passages are determined based the similarity of the elements in the selected passages to elements in the user interest information. The condensation transformations are applied to the selected passages to preferentially retain user foci while eliding less salient information. The resultant condensate provides signals the user-interest sensitive meaning of the passage. Meaning distortions constraints are optionally applied in conjunction with the condensation transformations or in creating the condensation transformations to reduce the likelihood of distorting the meaning of the passage.

US Patent:

7827029, Nov 2, 2010

Filed:

Nov 30, 2004

Appl. No.:

10/999793

Inventors:

Ronald Kaplan - Palo Alto CA, US
Richard Crouch - Cupertino CA, US
Michael Tepper - Seattle WA, US
Daniel Bobrow - Palo Alto CA, US

Assignee:

Palo Alto Research Center Incorporated - Palo Alto CA

International Classification:

G06F 17/27

US Classification:

704 9, 704 1, 704 10, 707736, 707767, 715254

Abstract:

Techniques are presented to determine user-interest sensitive notes. User selected passages, user interest information, condensation transformations and optional meaning distortion constraints are identified. User foci expressed by the selected passages are determined based on the similarity of the elements in the selected passages to elements in the user interest information. User sensitive notes are determined by selectively applying the condensation transformations to the selected passages to preferentially retain user foci while eliding less salient information. Meaning distortions constraints are optionally applied in conjunction with condensation transformations or in creating the condensation transformations in order to reduce the likelihood of distorting the meaning of the passage.

US Patent:

7984032, Jul 19, 2011

Filed:

Aug 29, 2008

Appl. No.:

12/201047

Inventors:

Giovanni Lorenzo Thione - San Francisco CA, US
Barney Pell - San Francisco CA, US
Chad Walters - San Francisco CA, US
Richard Crouch - Cupertino CA, US

Assignee:

Microsoft Corporation - Redmond WA

International Classification:

G06F 17/30

US Classification:

707705

Abstract:

Tools and techniques are described that relate to iterators for applying term occurrence-level constraints in natural language searching. These tools may receive a natural language input query, and define term occurrence-level constraints applicable to the input query. The methods may also identify facts requested in the input query, and may instantiate an iterator to traverse a fact index to identify candidate facts responsive to the input query. This iterator may traverse through at least a portion of the fact index. The methods may receive candidate facts from this iterator, with these candidate facts including terms, referred to as term-level occurrences. The methods may apply the term occurrence-level constraints to the term-level occurrences. The methods may select the candidate fact for inclusion in search results for the input query, based at least in part on applying the term occurrence-level constraint.

US Patent:

8229730, Jul 24, 2012

Filed:

Aug 29, 2008

Appl. No.:

12/201721

Inventors:

Martin H. Van Den Berg - Palo Alto CA, US
Giovanni L. Thione - San Francisco CA, US
Chad P. Walters - San Francisco CA, US
Richard S. Crouch - Cupertino CA, US

Assignee:

Microsoft Corporation - Redmond MA

International Classification:

G06F 17/30

US Classification:

704 4, 704 9

Abstract:

Methods, systems and computer readable media for finding documents in a data store that match a natural language query submitted by a user are provided. The documents and queries are matched by determining that words within the query have the same relationship to each other as the same words in the document. Documents are semantically analyzed and words in the document are indexed along with the role the word plays in a sentence. The initial semantic role may be generalized using a role hierarchy and stored in the index along with the original role. A similar analysis may be used with the search query to find words used in the same role in both the query and the document.

US Patent:

20040230415, Nov 18, 2004

Filed:

May 12, 2003

Appl. No.:

10/435036

Inventors:

Stefan Riezler - San Francisco CA, US
Richard Crouch - Cupertino CA, US
Tracy King - Mountain View CA, US
Annie Zaenen - Redwood City CA, US
Alexander Vasserman - Malden MA, US

International Classification:

G06F017/28

US Classification:

704/005000

Abstract:

Techniques are provided for determining grammatical condensed text structures. Packed structures are determined for text structures based on a parsing grammar. Reduced packed structures are determined by applying transformation rules to packed and/or unpacked elements of the packed structures. A disambiguation model is applied to the reduced packed structure to determine candidate structures. A grammatically correct generation grammar is applied to the candidate structures to determine grammatical condensed text structures.

US Patent:

20090070322, Mar 12, 2009

Filed:

Aug 29, 2008

Appl. No.:

12/201978

Inventors:

FRANCO SALVETTI - San Francisco CA, US
GIOVANNI LORENZO THIONE - San Francisco CA, US
RICHARD S. CROUCH - Cupertino CA, US
DAVID AHN - San Francisco CA, US
LUKAS A. BIEWALD - San Francisco CA, US
BRENDAN O'CONNOR - Mountain View CA, US
BARNEY D. PELL - San Francisco CA, US

Assignee:

Powerset, Inc. - Redmond WA

International Classification:

G06F 7/06
G06F 17/30

US Classification:

707 5, 707E17014

Abstract:

Computer-readable media and computer systems for conducting semantic processes to facilitate navigation of search results that include sets of tuples representing facts associated with content of documents in response to queries for information. Content of documents is accessed and semantic structures are derived by distilling linguistic representations from the content. Groups of two or more related words, called tuples, are extracted from the documents or the semantic structures. Tuples can be stored at a tuple index. Representations of the relational tuples are displayed in addition to documents retrieved in response to a query.