Lucent Technologies Inc.

Ncr Corporation

Mark Henry Hansen

Wim Sweldens

Gordon Albert Thomas

Elizabeth A Shriver

Theodore Sizer

Katherine Grace August

Partha Pratim Mitra

Ping-Wen Ong

Michelle McNerney

Don X Sun

Craig R Nohl

Harald F Hess

Daniel D Lee

Chin-Sheng Chuang

A method for organizing records of a database by topical relevance generates statistics on relevance by monitoring search terms used and search paths traversed by a database user community. Records reviewed most often in relation to a given search term are assumed to be most relevant to that search term in the eyes of members of the user community. Additionally, a record reviewed in relation to a plurality of search terms is determined to be related by topical relevance to other records reviewed in relation to that plurality of search terms. Again, a probability is calculated, based on a frequency of record review and search terms used, as a measure of this record topical relevance. An embodiment directed toward Internet searches provides for seeding the probability calculations with information from labeled data available from open source Internet directories. The activities of the user community are monitored, for example, at a proxy server, or by reviewing proxy server logs. Other monitoring points are contemplated.

Method for organizing records of database search activity by topical relevance

A system and method for information searching comprising determination of, in fine granularity, a Community of Interest (COI), further data mining in search results, using at least one of COI and expert preferences to identify important knowledge, formulation and manipulation of results, and summarization of search results into a document like entity with dynamic attributes described. More particularly, the invention relates to a system and method for providing interactive dialogue and iterative search functions to find information on a large network of servers such as the world wide web.

System and method for providing interactive dialogue and iterative search functions to find information

A system is disclosed for displaying information pertaining to the usage of Web pages. The system comprises first and second Web sites. The first Web site comprises plural Web-component files, each having a name in a Web-site directory. The second Web site comprises plural statistics files, each containing usage information about a corresponding Web-component file or sub-directory of Web-component files. The system farther comprises a computing device that has a display screen, is operable by a user, and is in communication with the first and second Web sites. The computing device is operated under the control of Web-browser software effective for displaying, on the screen, Web components of the respective Web sites. Significantly, the computing device is effective for requesting and retrieving, from either of the Web sites, data that correspond to user-designated Web components, and it is effective for directing a data request to either of the Web sites in response to user-designation of a Web component from the other Web site.

Method for characterizing and visualizing patterns of usage of a web site by network users

A method and system for optically recognizing an object from a reference library of known products based on a spectrum of local radius of curvature of the object. A surface portion of an object is illuminated with a pattern of light that permits the extraction of three dimensional coordinates for a set of points on the surface portion of the object. An image data set of the surface portion of the object is then captured with a capture device that is positioned at an angular offset with respect to a source of the light. That is, the combination of the light pattern and the imaging device together generate a two dimensional captured image, from which it is possible to extract the three dimensional coordinates for the set of points on the surface portion of the object. A set of local radii of curvatures are then determined for selected data points in the image data set. A spectrum representing a distribution of the curvatures is then computed for the set of local radii of curvatures. If the data set is for the generation of a library of spectra, it is processed with a dimension reduction analysis to determine a single set of basis functions representing all of the objects and a corresponding set of basis coefficients for each different type of object. If the data set is for an unknown object, then the dimension reduction analysis and the basis functions are applied to the data set to generate an unidentified set of basis coefficients. This latter set is then statistically compared with the reference library of spectra to identify the product or at least designate the closest known products.

Method and apparatus for object recognition

A system is disclosed for displaying information pertaining to the usage of Web pages. The system comprises first and second Web sites. The first Web site comprises plural Web-component files, each having a name in a Web-site directory. The second Web site comprises plural statistics files, each containing usage information about a corresponding Web-component file or sub-directory of Web-component files. The system further comprises a computing device that has a display screen, is operable by a user, and is in communication with the first and second Web sites. The computing device is operated under the control of Web-browser software effective for displaying, on the screen, Web components of the respective Web sites. Significantly, the computing device is effective for requesting and retrieving, from either of the Web sites, data that correspond to user-designated Web components, and it is effective for directing a data request to either of the Web sites in response to user-designation of a Web component from the other Web site.

A system and method for optically identifying a product from a reference library of known products based on a reflected spectrum of the product. A broad wavelength light source illuminates the product and a spectrometer receives and forms a plurality of finely spaced wavelengths from the reflected spectrum. A detector optically processes the wavelengths to generate signals proportional to an amount of light received at each of the wavelengths. The signals are normalized and pre-processed to form data sets which relates each of the signals to each of the finely spaced wavelengths. This is performed for all of the different products and compiled. A set of basis functions is then generated for all of the different products and a corresponding set of basis coefficients is generated for each of the different products. This information, along with an electronic label for each product, is stored to form the reference library. When identifying an unknown product, the system generates a set of basis coefficients for the product to be identified. This latter set is statistically compared against the reference library to identify the corresponding set of basis coefficients most closely matching the unknown set of basis coefficients.

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Hoboken, NJ, United States of America

Mark Henry Hansen