Patents by Inventor Michael Edward Houle

Michael Edward Houle 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).

  • Patent number: 8229900
    Abstract: A computer system for generating data structures for information retrieval of documents stored in a database. The computer system includes: a neighborhood patch generation system for defining patch of nodes having predetermined similarities in a hierarchy structure. The neighborhood patch generation subsystem includes a hierarchy generation subsystem for generating a hierarchy structure upon the document-keyword vectors and a patch definition subsystem. The computer system also comprises a cluster estimation subsystem for generating cluster data of the document-keyword vectors using the similarities of the patches.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 3, 2008
    Date of Patent: July 24, 2012
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventor: Michael Edward Houle
  • Patent number: 7492971
    Abstract: Selection devices, methods and systems for selecting, among a plurality of elements, a nearest neighbor set which is a set of elements each having a relation to a predetermined reference element, a degree of the relation meeting a predetermined condition. A selection device includes: a nearest neighbor set candidate selection unit for selecting, among the plurality of elements, a set of elements determined that the set of elements have stronger relations to the reference element, as each of a plurality of nearest neighbor set candidates, which are a plurality of different candidates for the nearest neighbor set; and a nearest neighbor set selection unit for selecting, as the nearest neighbor set, a set of elements having relations, degrees of which meet the predetermined condition, to the reference element, among a union of the plurality of nearest neighbor set candidates.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 10, 2005
    Date of Patent: February 17, 2009
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Jun Sakuma, Michael Edward Houle
  • Publication number: 20090006378
    Abstract: A computer system for generating data structures for information retrieval of documents stored in a database. The computer system includes: a neighborhood patch generation system for defining patch of nodes having predetermined similarities in a hierarchy structure. The neighborhood patch generation subsystem includes a hierarchy generation subsystem for generating a hierarchy structure upon the document-keyword vectors and a patch definition subsystem. The computer system also comprises a cluster estimation subsystem for generating cluster data of the document-keyword vectors using the similarities of the patches.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 3, 2008
    Publication date: January 1, 2009
    Applicant: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventor: Michael Edward Houle
  • Patent number: 7428541
    Abstract: A computer system for generating data structures for information retrieval of documents stored in a database. The computer system includes: a neighborhood patch generation system for defining patch of nodes having predetermined similarities in a hierarchy structure. The neighborhood patch generation subsystem includes a hierarchy generation subsystem for generating a hierarchy structure upon the document-keyword vectors and a patch definition subsystem. The computer system also comprises a cluster estimation subsystem for generating cluster data of the document-keyword vectors using the similarities of patches.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 15, 2003
    Date of Patent: September 23, 2008
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventor: Michael Edward Houle
  • Patent number: 7216129
    Abstract: A method is provided for retrieving information from massive databases (i.e., databases with millions of documents) in real time, that allows users to control the trade-off between accuracy in retrieved results and response times. The method may be applied to databases with contents, i.e., documents which have been modeled with a clearly defined metric that enables computation of distances between any two documents, so that pairs of documents which are “closer” with respect to the metric are more similar than pairs of documents which are “further apart”. Our method can be applied to similarity ranking and/or can be combined together with other methods to increase the scalability of information retrieval, detection, ranking, and tracking.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 19, 2003
    Date of Patent: May 8, 2007
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Masaki Aono, Michael Edward Houle, Mei Kobayashi
  • Publication number: 20040162834
    Abstract: A method is provided for retrieving information from massive databases (i.e., databases with millions of documents) in real time, that allows users to control the trade-off between accuracy in retrieved results and response times. The method may be applied to databases with contents, i.e., documents which have been modeled with a clearly defined metric that enables computation of distances between any two documents, so that pairs of documents which are “closer” with respect to the metric are more similar than pairs of documents which are “further apart”. Our method can be applied to similarity ranking and/or can be combined together with other methods to increase the scalability of information retrieval, detection, ranking, and tracking.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 19, 2003
    Publication date: August 19, 2004
    Inventors: Masaki Aono, Michael Edward Houle, Mei Kobayashi
  • Publication number: 20040139067
    Abstract: A computer system for generating data structures for information retrieval of documents stored in a database. The computer system includes: a neighborhood patch generation system for defining patch of nodes having predetermined similarities in a hierarchy structure. The neighborhood patch generation subsystem includes a hierarchy generation subsystem for generating a hierarchy structure upon the document-keyword vectors and a patch definition subsystem. The computer system also comprises a cluster estimation subsystem for generating cluster data of the document-keyword vectors using the similarities of patches.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 15, 2003
    Publication date: July 15, 2004
    Applicant: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventor: Michael Edward Houle