Inferring type classifications from natural language text

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9880997-B2
Application number	US-201414478906-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 5, 2014
Priority date	Jul 23, 2014
Publication date	Jan 30, 2018
Grant date	Jan 30, 2018

Abstract

A device may obtain text to be processed to infer type classifications associated with terms in the text. The type classifications may indicate types of values that the terms are intended to represent. The device may infer type classifications corresponding to terms in the text by performing a type classification technique. The type classification technique may include a name-based analysis, a context-based analysis a synonym-based analysis, or a valued-based analysis. These analyses may compare information, associated with the terms in the text, to type indicators that indicate the type classifications. The device may provide information that identifies a type relationship between a particular type classification and a particular term based on inferring the one or more type classifications.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A device, comprising:
an interface including one or more of a communication interface or a user interface;
a memory; and
one or more processors to:
obtain, via the interface or from the memory, information identifying type classifications,
each type classification, of the type classifications, indicating that terms classified under the type classification are expressed by a particular type of value of a plurality of types of values,
the plurality of types of values including character strings and numeric values;

obtain, via the interface, text to be processed to infer one or more type classifications, of the type classifications, associated with terms in the text,
the text being included in a file associated with development of a computer program for a computer system, and
each respective term, of the terms, being associated with a plurality of different possible values of a same type classification of the one or more type classifications;

standardize the text to prepare the text for processing by adjusting at least one character in the text of the file;
process the text that has been standardized to identify terms in the text based on delimiting characters in the text;
associate at least one tag with the identified terms in the text, the at least one tag being one or more of a part-of-speech tag, an entity tag, or a term tag;
extract, based on the at least one tag associated with the terms, one or more terms, of the terms identified in the text, as unique terms for which to infer the one or more type classifications,
a quantity of the unique terms being fewer than a quantity of the terms identified in the text;

generate a data structure that stores the unique terms;
perform one or more type classification techniques to infer the one or more type classifications corresponding to the unique terms,
the one or more type classification techniques including at least one of:
a name-based analysis that compares the unique terms to one or more sets of name-based type indicators corresponding to the one or more type classifications,
a context-based analysis that compares one or more modifiers, that modify the unique terms, to one or more sets of context-based type indicators corresponding to the one or more type classifications,
a synonym-based analysis that compares one or more synonyms, of the unique terms, to the one or more sets of name-based type indicators corresponding to the one or more type classifications, or
a value-based analysis that compares one or more values, associated with the unique terms, to one or more sets of value-based type indicators corresponding to the one or more type classifications;

classify the unique terms by assigning the one or more type classifications to the unique terms based on performing the one or more type classification techniques;
provide, for display via the interface, information associated with development of the computer program,
the information associated with development of the computer program indicating a type relationship between a particular term, of the unique terms, and a particular type classification of the one or more type classifications;

receive, via the interface, a set of test data rules from a user or from another device;
generate test data based on the set of test data rules,
the test data including the unique terms to be classified, type classifications under which the unique terms are to be classified, and values for the unique terms;

apply the test data to the computer program,
the computer program being designed based on the text that was processed to infer one or more type classifications for the unique terms extracted from the text, and
the applying of the test data to the computer program includes input of the test data to the computer program and executing the computer program to:
classify the test data to obtain a confidence score associated with the classifying a unique term, of the unique terms, under each of the type classifications determined to be associated with the unique term; and

provide, for display to the user or to another device, the test data, the one or more type classifications generated from the test data, and the confidence score associated with the one or more type classifications.

2. The device of claim 1 , where the one or more processors are further to:
generate a type classification equation that indicates a relationship between the particular term and another term of the unique terms; and
classify the other term by assigning the particular type classification to the other term based on generating the type classification equation,
the information associated with development of the computer program identifying a relationship between the other term and the particular type classification based on classifying the other term using the particular type classification.

3. The device of claim 1 , where the one or more processors are further to: associate tags with terms in the text,
the tags indicating whether a term is to be classified using the one or more type classifications;
identify the unique terms to be classified based on associating the tags with the terms; and
where the one or more processors, when classifying the unique terms, are to:
classify the unique terms based on identifying the unique terms to be classified.

4. The device of claim 1 , where the one or more type classifications include:
a plurality of primitive type classifications used to classify terms that do not represent other terms in the text; and
a composite type classification used to classify terms that represent at least one other term in the text.

5. The device of claim 1 , where the one or more processors, when performing the one or more type classification techniques, are to:
perform two or more type classification techniques to infer the one or more type classifications corresponding to the unique terms,
the two or more type classification techniques including at least two of:
the name-based analysis,
the context-based analysis,
the synonym-based analysis, or
the value-based analysis.

6. The device of claim 1 , where the one or more type classifications include at least one of:
a numeric values type classification that indicates values associated with the respective term are represented by numeric values,
a floating point values type classification that indicates values associated with the respective term are represented by floating point values,
an integer values type classification that indicates values associated with the respective term are represented by integer values,
a string values type classification that indicates values associated with the respective term are represented by string values, or
a Boolean values type classification that indicates values associated with the respective term are represented by Boolean values.

7. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions, the instructions comprising:
one or more instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:
obtain, via an interface or from a memory, information identifying type classifications,
the interface including one or more of a communication interface or a user interface,
each type classification, of the type classifications, indicating that terms classified under the type classification are expressed by a particular type of value of a plurality of types of values, and
the plurality of types of values including character strings and numeric values;

obtain, via the interface, text to be processed to infer one or more type classifications, of the type classifications, associated with terms in the text,
the text being included in a file associated with development of a

Assignees

• Accenture Global Services Ltd

Inventors

• Misra Janardan
• Sharma Ruchika

Classifications

• G06F40/117 Primary

  Tagging; Marking up (details of markup languages G06F40/143); Designating a block; Setting of attributes (style sheets, e.g. eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformation [XSLT], G06F40/154) · CPC title

• G06F40/247

  Thesauruses; Synonyms · CPC title

• G06F40/30 Primary

  Semantic analysis · CPC title

• G06F17/2795

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F17/218

  Physics · mapped topic