The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 22, 2001
Filed:
Sep. 14, 1998
Sameer Mahajan, Beaverton, OR (US);
Sridhar Ramaswamy, Scotch Plains, NJ (US);
Abraham Silberschatz, Summit, NJ (US);
Lucent Technologies, Inc., Murray Hill, NJ (US);
Abstract
A system and method for determining calendric association rules are provided. The method uses calendars to describe the variation of association rules over time, where a specific calendar is defined as a collection of time intervals describing some phenomenon. In accordance with the invention, there is provided a method for identifying calendric association rules in transactional data with time stamped data items. In one exemplary embodiment, the method identifies large itemsets in each time unit, where a large itemset is an itemset that occurs in the transactions more than a given threshold. The method then identifies association rules of the form X—Y from the large itemsets by determining if a requisite support for the itemset XY and a given confidence threshold (ratio of (support of XY)/(support of X)) has been satisfied. Calendric association rules are then generated by examining identified association rules to determine which ones exhibit the temporal patterns specified by given calendars. In another embodiment, the method identifies large itemsets in each time unit, where an itemset includes at least one item type. The method then identifies calendars that belong to the large itemsets. Potential calendars for increasingly larger item type itemsets are generated by using previously identified calendars. Support values are calculated to determine which potential calendars actually belong to the itemsets and this is then used to determine what potential calendar association rules exist. The potential calendar association rule information and support values are used to determine which potential calendars actually belong to association rules.