Patent ID: 6496818
Filing Date: 2002-12-17
Classification: G06F,Y10S

Abstract:
A method for assigning index terms to a document Di in a collection of documents, where other documents in the collection have previously had index terms assigned by another method, comprising:(a) selecting a term Ij from among a set of terms from which the index terms are being assigned, which term Ij has not yet been processed, (b) calculating a likelihood function for the document Di and a document Dk in the collection to which the term Ij has previously been assigned as an index term by another method, which likelihood function is based upon the likelihood that a term occurring in the document Di also occurs in the document Dk, (c) repeating step (b) for a plurality of other documents Dk in the collection to which the term Ij has previously been assigned as an index term by another method, (d) calculating a total score for the Document Di for the Index Term Ij, which total score is based upon the likelihood functions for the document Di and the documents Dk in the collection to which the term Ij has previously been assigned as an index term by another method, (e) repeating steps (a)-(d) for a plurality of other terms Ij from among the set of terms from which index terms are being assigned, and (f) choosing index terms to be assigned to Document Di, from among the set of terms Ij from which index terms are being assigned, based upon the total scores calculated for the Document Di for the Index Terms Ij.