Patents by Inventor Eric W. Will
Eric W. Will has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
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Publication number: 20200167664Abstract: Techniques for identifying missing evidence are provided. A plurality of documents, each comprising digitally encoded natural language text data, is received. The plurality of documents is processed to determine a plurality of pair-wise comparisons between a plurality of therapies, where each of the plurality of pair-wise comparisons indicate a relative efficacy of at least one therapy in the plurality of therapies, as compared to at least one other therapy in the plurality of therapies. A knowledge graph is generated based at least in part on aggregating the plurality of pair-wise comparisons, and the knowledge graph is analyzed to identify one or more knowledge gaps within the knowledge graph. Finally, at least an indication of the identified one or more knowledge gaps is output.Type: ApplicationFiled: November 28, 2018Publication date: May 28, 2020Inventors: Richard J. STEVENS, Fernando Jose SUAREZ SAIZ, Eric W. WILL, Adam CLARK
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Patent number: 10296557Abstract: Embodiments of the invention may be used to improve enforcement and compliance with publishing rules in an automated and provable manner. Prior to publication, documents may be processed using publishing rules (workflows) based on conceptual analysis of document content. Additionally, embodiments of the invention include a content creation system configured to provide prompt feedback on content coverage. Such a system enables the creator of information to better understand what approval requirements apply to content they create and intend to publish, as the content is being created.Type: GrantFiled: May 28, 2008Date of Patent: May 21, 2019Assignee: International Business Machines CorporationInventors: Richard D. Dettinger, Frederick A. Kulack, Brian E. Olson, Eric W. Will
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Patent number: 10169546Abstract: Embodiments of the invention may be used to improve enforcement and compliance with publishing rules in an automated and provable manner. Prior to publication, documents may be processed using publishing rules (workflows) based on conceptual analysis of document content. Additionally, embodiments of the invention include a content creation system configured to provide prompt feedback on content coverage. Such a system enables the creator of information to better understand what approval requirements apply to content they create and intend to publish, as the content is being created.Type: GrantFiled: May 28, 2008Date of Patent: January 1, 2019Assignee: International Business Machines CorporationInventors: Richard D. Dettinger, Frederick A. Kulack, Eric W. Will
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Patent number: 9852127Abstract: Embodiments of the invention may be used to improve enforcement and compliance with publishing rules in an automated and provable manner. Prior to publication, documents may be processed using publishing rules (workflows) based on conceptual analysis of document content. Additionally, embodiments of the invention include a content creation system configured to provide prompt feedback on content coverage. Such a system enables the creator of information to better understand what approval requirements apply to content they create and intend to publish, as the content is being created.Type: GrantFiled: May 28, 2008Date of Patent: December 26, 2017Assignee: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATIONInventors: Richard D. Dettinger, Frederick A. Kulack, Eric W. Will
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Patent number: 9773044Abstract: Method, system, and computer program product to analyze a plurality of candidate answers identified as responsive to a question presented to a deep question answering system, by computing a first feature score for a first feature of an item of evidence, of a plurality of items of evidence, the first feature score being based on at least one attribute of the first feature, the item of evidence relating to a first candidate answer, of the plurality of candidate answers, and computing a merged feature score for the first candidate answer by applying the first feature score to a second feature score for a second feature of the item of evidence.Type: GrantFiled: March 11, 2013Date of Patent: September 26, 2017Assignee: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATIONInventors: Joel C. Dubbels, Thomas J. Eggebraaten, Mark G. Megerian, William C. Rapp, Richard J. Stevens, Patrick M. Wildt, Eric W. Will
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Patent number: 9753986Abstract: Method, system, and computer program product to analyze a plurality of candidate answers identified as responsive to a question presented to a deep question answering system, by computing a first feature score for a first feature of an item of evidence, of a plurality of items of evidence, the first feature score being based on at least one attribute of the first feature, the item of evidence relating to a first candidate answer, of the plurality of candidate answers, and computing a merged feature score for the first candidate answer by applying the first feature score to a second feature score for a second feature of the item of evidence.Type: GrantFiled: December 17, 2012Date of Patent: September 5, 2017Assignee: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATIONInventors: Joel C. Dubbels, Thomas J. Eggebraaten, Mark G. Megerian, William C. Rapp, Richard J. Stevens, Patrick M. Wildt, Eric W. Will
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Patent number: 9257052Abstract: Evaluating candidate answers to questions in a target knowledge domain, including: identifying, by a question answering module, a plurality of evidence items in the target knowledge domain; identifying, by the question answering module, a plurality of answers to questions in the target knowledge domain; determining, by the question answering module, associations between each evidence item and one or more of the answers; receiving, by the question answering module, a question; receiving, by the question answering module, values for the one or more evidence items; and providing, by the question answering module, an answer to the question in dependence upon the associations between each evidence item and one or more of the answers and the values for the one or more evidence items.Type: GrantFiled: August 23, 2012Date of Patent: February 9, 2016Assignee: International Business Machines CorporationInventors: William C. Rapp, Richard J. Stevens, Eric W. Will
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Patent number: 8856154Abstract: Embodiments of the invention allow structured data to be transferred between a source application and a service-oriented target application that process data in different formats. The data to be transferred may be divided into different sections, where each section is processed by a respective service of the target application. To transform each section of data into a format compatible with a respective service, the data may have a set of associated rules which transform data based on a set of variables. The source application may provide variable definitions for each of the variables. Each service of the target application may specify values for each of the variables. Once the variables have a specified value, a transformation engine may transform each section of the data and subsequently transfer the transformed sections of the data to respective services of the target application for processing.Type: GrantFiled: January 22, 2009Date of Patent: October 7, 2014Assignee: International Business Machines CorporationInventors: Thomas J. Eggebraaten, Jeffrey W. Tenner, Shannon E. Wenzel, Eric W. Will
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Publication number: 20140172755Abstract: Method, system, and computer program product to analyze a plurality of candidate answers identified as responsive to a question presented to a deep question answering system, by computing a first feature score for a first feature of an item of evidence, of a plurality of items of evidence, the first feature score being based on at least one attribute of the first feature, the item of evidence relating to a first candidate answer, of the plurality of candidate answers, and computing a merged feature score for the first candidate answer by applying the first feature score to a second feature score for a second feature of the item of evidence.Type: ApplicationFiled: December 17, 2012Publication date: June 19, 2014Applicant: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATIONInventors: Joel C. Dubbels, Thomas J. Eggebraaten, Mark G. Megerian, William C. Rapp, Richard J. Stevens, Patrick M. Wildt, Eric W. Will
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Publication number: 20140057241Abstract: Evaluating candidate answers to questions in a target knowledge domain, including: identifying, by a question answering module, a plurality of evidence items in the target knowledge domain; identifying, by the question answering module, a plurality of answers to questions in the target knowledge domain; determining, by the question answering module, associations between each evidence item and one or more of the answers; receiving, by the question answering module, a question; receiving, by the question answering module, values for the one or more evidence items; and providing, by the question answering module, an answer to the question in dependence upon the associations between each evidence item and one or more of the answers and the values for the one or more evidence items.Type: ApplicationFiled: August 23, 2012Publication date: February 27, 2014Applicant: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATIONInventors: William C. Rapp, Richard J. Stevens, Eric W. Will
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Patent number: 8639497Abstract: Natural language processing (‘NLP’) including: receiving text specifying predetermined evidence; receiving a text passage to process, the text passage including conditions and logical operators, the text passage comprising criteria for evidence; decomposing the text passage into coarse grained text fragments, including grouping text segments in dependence upon the logical operators; analyzing each coarse grained text fragment to identify conditions; evaluating each identified condition in accordance with the predetermined evidence and predefined condition evaluation rules; evaluating each coarse grained text fragment in dependence upon the condition evaluations and the logical operators; and calculating, in dependence upon the evaluations of each text fragment, a truth value indicating a degree to which the evidence meets the criteria of the text passage.Type: GrantFiled: January 15, 2013Date of Patent: January 28, 2014Assignee: International Business Machines CorporationInventors: Thomas J. Eggebraaten, Richard J. Stevens, Eric W. Will
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Patent number: 8639495Abstract: Natural language processing (‘NLP’) including: receiving text specifying predetermined evidence; receiving a text passage to process, the text passage including conditions and logical operators, the text passage comprising criteria for evidence; decomposing the text passage into coarse grained text fragments, including grouping text segments in dependence upon the logical operators; analyzing each coarse grained text fragment to identify conditions; evaluating each identified condition in accordance with the predetermined evidence and predefined condition evaluation rules; evaluating each coarse grained text fragment in dependence upon the condition evaluations and the logical operators; and calculating, in dependence upon the evaluations of each text fragment, a truth value indicating a degree to which the evidence meets the criteria of the text passage.Type: GrantFiled: January 4, 2012Date of Patent: January 28, 2014Assignee: International Business Machines CorporationInventors: Thomas J. Eggebraaten, Richard J. Stevens, Eric W. Will
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Patent number: 8615527Abstract: The present invention generally is directed to methods, articles of manufacture and systems for automatically generating abstract representations of a limited subset of data repository fields accessed by a particular application. The limited subset of fields may be identified by monitoring queries issued against the data repository by the application. The abstract representations may be grouped in a data repository abstraction (DRA) component that serves as a data definition framework allowing data from the fields to be accessed independent of the particular in which the data is physically represented in the data repository. By limiting the fields exposed to the application to the limited subset of fields actually accessed by the application, the DRA component, in effect, provides the application with a custom database tailored to its particular needs.Type: GrantFiled: August 3, 2006Date of Patent: December 24, 2013Assignee: International Business Machines CorporationInventors: Richard D. Dettinger, Frederick A. Kulack, Richard J. Stevens, Eric W. Will
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Patent number: 8577908Abstract: A method, system and article of manufacture for accessing data in a database independent of the particular manner in which the data is physically represented and for preventing alterations of data in the database when a query is executed against the database are provided. One embodiment provides a method of preventing alterations of data in a database when a query is executed against the database. The method includes providing a logical representation of the data defining a plurality of logical fields abstractly describing associated physical entities of the data; receiving an abstract query comprising at least one logical field of the plurality of logical fields; and locking the at least one logical field before executing the abstract query.Type: GrantFiled: March 20, 2003Date of Patent: November 5, 2013Assignee: International Business Machines CorporationInventors: Richard D. Dettinger, Frederick A. Kulack, Richard J. Stevens, Eric W. Will
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Publication number: 20130173249Abstract: Natural language processing (‘NLP’) including: receiving text specifying predetermined evidence; receiving a text passage to process, the text passage including conditions and logical operators, the text passage comprising criteria for evidence; decomposing the text passage into coarse grained text fragments, including grouping text segments in dependence upon the logical operators; analyzing each coarse grained text fragment to identify conditions; evaluating each identified condition in accordance with the predetermined evidence and predefined condition evaluation rules; evaluating each coarse grained text fragment in dependence upon the condition evaluations and the logical operators; and calculating, in dependence upon the evaluations of each text fragment, a truth value indicating a degree to which the evidence meets the criteria of the text passage.Type: ApplicationFiled: January 4, 2012Publication date: July 4, 2013Applicant: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATIONInventors: Thomas J. Eggebraaten, Richard J. Stevens, Eric W. Will
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Patent number: 8301647Abstract: Embodiments of the invention allow structured data to be transferred between a source application and target applications that process structured data in different formats. For example, structured data may have associated rules which transform the structured data based on some variables. The source application may register variable definitions for each variable in a registry. Each target application may read the registry and register values for the variables. Once values are registered, the source application transfers the structured data to a transformation engine that applies the rules, using the registered values for the variables, to transform the structured data into a format compatible with the target applications. The transformation engine may also determine distinct sets of variable values and transform structured data based on each distinct set. In doing so, the number of transformed data generated is limited to the number of distinct sets, thereby avoiding generating duplicate transformed data.Type: GrantFiled: January 22, 2009Date of Patent: October 30, 2012Assignee: International Business Machines CorporationInventors: Thomas J. Eggebraaten, Jeffrey W. Tenner, Shannon E. Wenzel, Eric W. Will
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Patent number: 8275779Abstract: Embodiments of the invention allow structured data to be transferred between a source application and a target application that process structured data in different formats. For example, structured data may have a set of associated rules which transform the structured data based on a set of variables. The source application may register variable definitions for each of the variables in a registry. The target application may read the registry and register values for each of the rule variables. Once values are registered for the variables, the source application may transfer the structured data to a transformation engine that applies the rules, using the registered values for the variables, to transform the structured data into a format compatible with the target application. In doing so, the transformation engine can generate a document in any format compatible with the target application and subsequently transfer the generated document to the target application.Type: GrantFiled: January 22, 2009Date of Patent: September 25, 2012Assignee: International Business Machines CorporationInventors: Thomas J. Eggebraaten, Jeffrey W. Tenner, Shannon E. Wenzel, Eric W. Will
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Patent number: 8140535Abstract: A method and apparatus for searching for a documents residing on a network comprises receiving a search request from a user. The search request comprises one or more search terms of an ontology. The ontology includes a plurality of terms. One or more of the plurality of terms includes a plurality of sub-category terms. One or more documents residing on the network is identified based on the one or more search terms and an ontology index. The ontology index comprises a plurality of relationships between the plurality of terms and sub-category terms of the ontology and a plurality of documents residing on the network. One or more search results that describe the one or more documents is presented to the user. The one or more documents contain the one or more search terms, or one of the plurality of sub-category terms of the one or more search terms.Type: GrantFiled: October 23, 2007Date of Patent: March 20, 2012Assignee: International Business Machines CorporationInventors: Thomas John Eggebraaten, Jeffrey Wayne Tenner, Shannon Everett Wenzel, Eric W. Will
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Patent number: 8122048Abstract: Methods, articles of manufacture and systems for searching collections of data using context sensitive expanded term searching using dynamic term expansion are provided. The collection of data may be a relational database, text document, or any other type of searchable collection of data. In either case, a query including a search condition based on a specified search term may be modified to include additional conditions based on a set of expanded (e.g., conceptually-related) search terms dynamically linked with the query. For some embodiments, a user may be given the ability to choose whether the set of expanded search terms are dynamically linked with the query or not.Type: GrantFiled: September 22, 2009Date of Patent: February 21, 2012Assignee: International Business Machines CorporationInventors: Richard D. Dettinger, David G. Herbeck, Jeffrey W. Tenner, Eric W. Will
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Patent number: 8122052Abstract: Methods, articles of manufacture and systems are provided for simplifying a query building process by limiting the number of fields presented to a user for building queries. The number of fields presented to the user may be limited by hiding one or more logical fields from the user based on usage characteristics. For example, a logical field that is rarely used or has not been used within a predetermined period of time may be hidden from the user. For some embodiments, a fallout manager may monitor the use of logical fields in building queries, update usage characteristics, and mark logical fields as hidden based on the usage characteristics. A graphical user interface may not present to a user logical fields that have been marked as hidden.Type: GrantFiled: April 28, 2010Date of Patent: February 21, 2012Assignee: International Business Machines CorporationInventors: Richard D. Dettinger, Frederick A. Kulack, Richard J. Stevens, Eric W. Will