Patent ID: 7805440

Claim:
A non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions executable by a processor to perform a method for information processing, the method comprising the steps of: collecting of a plurality of data objects in response to a query; creating a k-partite graph representing the plurality of data objects, wherein each data object defines a node in the k-partite graph, such that, the nodes can be divided into a number of mutually exclusive sets such that each of the nodes are in exactly one of the sets, the k-partite graph further comprising one or more edges occurring only between nodes in different sets, each of the sets being a mode; aggregating one or more of the nodes of one of the sets into one or more category nodes, where the category node becomes a member of the respective set and the category node inherits the edges of all the aggregated nodes in the respective set; creating a directed acyclic graph index (DAGI) that contains one or more DAGI nodes connected to one another by one or more DAGI edges, one or more of the DAGI nodes corresponding to one or more of the categories, and one or more of the DAGI nodes corresponding to one or more of the nodes in the k-partite graph, and the DAGI edges establishing a hierarchy of containment of the DAGI nodes; and performing a simplification process comprising selecting one or more non-leaf DAGI nodes as one of the category nodes and using one or more descendent nodes of the non-leaf node to identify the nodes aggregated in the respective category, wherein the data objects corresponding to identified nodes aggregated in the respective category are returned as a result of the query.