Patent ID: 7152063

Claim:
A document filtering method using a computer for extracting documents matching with a relevant profile expressing a user's request in terms of features of relevant documents that were correctly selected in the past by the computer from search target documents and presenting extracted documents to a user through the computer, comprising the steps of: producing a non-relevant profile expressing non-relevant documents in terms of features of documents that were judged in the past as having high similarities with respect to the relevant profile by the computer but not matching with the user's request; calculating a first similarity between the relevant profile and each search target document, and comparing the first similarity with a prescribed first threshold for the relevant profile; calculating a second similarity between the non-relevant profile and each search target document for which the first similarity is higher than the prescribed first threshold, and comparing the second similarity with a prescribed second threshold for the non-relevant profile; removing each search target document for which the first similarity is higher than the prescribed first threshold and the second similarity is higher than the prescribed second threshold as a non-relevant document, and selecting each search target document for which the first similarity is higher than the prescribed first threshold and the second similarity is not higher than the prescribed second threshold as a document to be presented to the user; and updating the relevant profile and the non-relevant profile according to a feedback from the user regarding relevance of documents presented to the user.