Technology for dynamically creating expressions for regulation

Abstract

This invention provides a computer implementation method and system for dynamically creating expressions for regulatory purposes. [Solution] A computer implementation method for enhancing an object model for regulation includes: accessing an electronic document containing a set of sentences that corresponds to a regulation; determining a set of topics describing the regulation using a computer processor; receiving a query that identifies a desired set of topics; applying a classifier model to each sentence in the set of sentences to determine the probability that the sentence is applicable to at least one of the desired set of topics; outputting a subset of the set of sentences in which the probability of applicability to at least one of the desired set of topics satisfies at least a specified threshold; and updating the object model for regulation by associating the subset of the set of sentences with one or more corresponding topics in the desired set.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] Cross-Reference to Related Applications This application claims the benefit of U.S. Patent Application No. 62 / 923,306, filed Oct. 18, 2019, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety.

[0002] This disclosure is directed to creating a standardized object model for regulation. More specifically, this disclosure is directed to platforms and technologies for analyzing incorporated regulations, creating an object model, and enabling version management of regulations or object models for regulations that indicate applicable topics and categories.

Background Art

[0003] The quantity and scope of consumer products available in the market are constantly changing as new products are introduced and existing products are improved or modified. In particular, manufacturers, sellers, etc. of products consistently release new products and update existing products in order to meet consumer demand and compete with other manufacturers, sellers, etc. Generally, products are defined according to protocols and specifications, where a protocol is a set of compliance and / or voluntary performance test requirements that a given product must meet in order for a given customer to enter a given market, and a product specification or datasheet may describe the product, its features, brand claims, and / or other aspects. Both protocols and specifications can help explain factors differentiating products.

[0004] Throughout the entire product lifecycle, from conception to disposal, products are subject to governance in the form of regulations, laws, legislative documents, and standards. Typically, different jurisdictions (e.g., federations, unions, labor unions, states, counties, etc.) have different regulations for different products. For example, California may regulate lithium-ion batteries differently than Texas. However, in addition to defining various requirements, regulations are often inconsistent in terms of terminology, scope, form, and applicability, among other disagreements. Furthermore, regulations may govern other aspects associated with a product, such as components and materials that are part of the product engineering or packaging of the final product, making the investigation of applicable regulations extremely complex. Consequently, entities associated with a product (e.g., retailers, manufacturers, suppliers, etc.) may not be able to effectively identify the requirements of a particular regulation or determine which regulations may be applicable to a particular product, especially a new or updated product.

[0005] Therefore, there is an opportunity for platforms and technologies that can effectively and efficiently classify and determine the applicability of regulations issued by various jurisdictions. [Overview of the project]

[0006] In one embodiment, a computer implementation method is provided for creating an object model for a regulation for a given market(s). The method may include: accessing a set of regulatory information corresponding to a regulation by a computer processor; segmenting the set of regulatory information into a set of structured text and a set of metadata by a computer processor; generating an object model for the regulation, wherein the object model includes the set of structured text and the set of metadata; performing linguistic analysis on the object model by a computer processor to detect a set of sentences within the set of structured text; generating a summary of the regulation based on the set of sentences by a computer processor; and enhancing the object model for the regulation with the summary of the regulation by a computer processor.

[0007] In another embodiment, a system is provided for dynamically creating an object model for a regulation. The system may include a memory for storing instructions and a processor interfaced with the memory. The processor can be configured to execute instructions causing the processor to: access a set of regulatory information corresponding to a regulation; segment the set of regulatory information into a set of structured text and a set of metadata; generate an object model for the regulation, the object model including the set of structured text and the set of metadata; perform linguistic analysis on the object model to detect a set of sentences within the set of structured text; generate a summary of the regulation based on the set of sentences; and enhance the object model for the regulation with the summary of the regulation. [Brief explanation of the drawing]

[0008] [Figure 1A] This document outlines the components and entities associated with the system and method, according to several embodiments. [Figure 1B] This document outlines certain components configured to facilitate the system and method, according to several embodiments. [Figure 2] This is an exemplary flowchart illustrating various functions associated with the system and method according to several embodiments. [Figure 3] This is another exemplary flowchart related to the creation of an object model for regulation, according to several embodiments. [Modes for carrying out the invention]

[0009] This embodiment may relate, in particular, to a platform and technology for dynamically analyzing regulations applicable to multiple products, or components, materials, chemicals, attributes, or features that may be associated with a product, across multiple jurisdictions. According to a particular embodiment, the system and method can receive, or otherwise access, regulations and segment them into a set of structured text, which may include headers, footers, titles, body text, sections, subsections, paragraphs, lists, sublists, citations, references, or any other type of information block presented in the form of the original document. The system and method can further segment the regulations into a set of metadata containing additional information relating to the content and subject matter of the underlying regulations. The system and method can further analyze the regulations to determine a set of sentences and automatically generate a summary of each regulation from the set of sentences.

[0010] The system and method can further classify sets of sentences to determine the set of topics for each sentence, each set of topics having an associated probability of being applicable to the underlying regulation. In this regard, the system and method can be useful for sentences with topics that satisfy a threshold probability, allowing users to gain additional insights into the regulation. The system and method can generate an object model for the regulation and augment it with additional data determined as a result of various analyses. It should be understood that the system and method can operate using English or any other language and / or can translate information from one language(s) to another(s).

[0011] Therefore, this system and method offers numerous benefits. In particular, the object models generated by the system and method can serve as a standard format for mitigating the various inconsistencies and complexities present in issued regulations governing products and their associated components, materials, chemicals, attributes, features, labeling, and packaging. In addition, various entities or individuals can access the object models to effectively and efficiently verify relevant information about regulations and / or products, components, materials, chemicals, attributes, or features that may be affected by those regulations. Specifically, entities or individuals can determine from the object models a set of topics and / or conditions that may be particularly relevant to the underlying regulations. The system and method can also store the object models in a central database for effective searching by entities and individuals. Further benefits are anticipated.

[0012] For example, changes in specific product regulations, such as those specific to a particular product structure or function, may necessitate changes to the product design. Additionally, if new regulations limit the content of hazardous chemicals, producers may need to reformulate their products to ensure continued compliance with the new regulations. Furthermore, systems and methods can leverage automated processes to access and manage specific product-related details and characteristics, components, or materials (for example, to link them to the product design and development stages of the product lifecycle). Systems and methods can be used by product designers to receive automated alerts whenever regulatory changes necessitate specific changes to product design, testing, inspection, certification, labeling, or packaging, and can be directly integrated with product development applications to automatically reflect applicable regulatory changes and suggest or present extensions to protocols or specifications / datasheets.

[0013] The systems and methods described herein address challenges specific to supply chain management. These challenges relate to the difficulty of accurately and effectively assessing how regulations should be interpreted or applied, and determining which regulations are applicable to a product or product category before it is introduced to the market, particularly due to the inconsistencies and complexity between product protocols and regulations. Traditionally, individuals had to manually review regulations to determine the scope and applicability of a particular product. However, these traditional methods are often time-consuming, ineffective, and / or costly. In addition, regulations are inconsistent in scope, terminology, and format across different jurisdictions. Furthermore, regulations typically refer to components, materials, chemicals, attributes, or characteristics associated with many types of products or product categories, rather than the final product. The systems and methods provide the capability to solve these problems by dynamically analyzing regulations to determine relevant attributes, generating an object model for the regulations that is formatted consistently and shows relevant product attributes, and making the object model effectively accessible. Furthermore, because the system and method utilize communication between multiple devices and components, the system and method are necessarily rooted in computer technology to overcome the pointed-out shortcomings that arise particularly in the field of supply chain management.

[0014] Figure 1A shows an overview of System 100, a set of components configured to facilitate the system and method. It should be understood that System 100 is merely an example, and alternative or additional components are anticipated.

[0015] As shown in Figure 1A, System 100 may include a pair of electronic devices 101 and 102. Each of the electronic devices 101 and 102 may be any type of electronic device, such as a mobile device (e.g., a smartphone), a desktop computer, a notebook computer, a tablet, a phablet, a GPS (Global Positioning System) or GPS-enabled device, a smartwatch, smart glasses, a smart bracelet, a wearable electronic device, a PDA (personal digital assistant), a pager, or a computing device configured for wireless communication. In embodiments, either of the electronic devices 101 or 102 may be an electronic device associated with an entity such as a company, corporation, or legal entity (e.g., a server computer or machine).

[0016] Each of the electronic devices 101 and 102 may be used by any individual or person (generally, a user). According to the embodiment, the user may use each of the electronic devices 101 and 102 to input various information associated with a product(s) and / or regulation(s). The product(s) may be offered for sale or made available for purchase or use by an enterprise, company, service provider, etc., and may be regulated by applicable regulations(s) in applicable jurisdictions. Alternatively or additionally, an enterprise, company, service provider, etc., may be considering offering the product for sale or purchase in a particular jurisdiction(s). In the embodiment, the information may represent iterations, updates, or new versions of the product(s). The user may also use the electronic devices 101 and 102 to input queries associated with the product and / or regulation(s).

[0017] Electronic devices 101 and 102 can communicate with a server computer 115 via one or more networks 110. The server computer 115 can be associated with entities such as companies, corporations, and legal entities that access, aggregate, and analyze existing and / or new regulations. Additionally or alternatively, the server computer 115 can be associated with, or otherwise interface with, entities such as companies, corporations, and legal entities that market, manufacture, or sell products. In embodiments, electronic devices 101 and 102 can send or communicate information associated with products and / or regulations, or queries related thereto, to the server computer 115 via the network(s) 110.

[0018] In embodiments, network(s) 110 may support any type of data communication via any standard or technology, including various wide-area network or local area network protocols (e.g., GSM, CDMA, VoIP, TDMA, WCDMA®, LTE, EDGE, OFDM, GPRS, EV-DO, UWB, Internet, IEEE 802 including Ethernet, WiMAX, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, etc.). Furthermore, in embodiments, network(s) 110 may be any telecommunications network capable of supporting telephone calls between electronic devices 101, 102 and server computer 115.

[0019] In some implementations, the server computer 115 can communicate with one or more product-related data sources 117. Depending on the embodiment, the product-related data source(s) 117 may, alternatively or additionally, receive, access, and / or store various product information, including data that may relate to product components, materials, chemicals, attributes, characteristics, intended use, labeling, packaging, or regulatory requirements. In addition, the product-related data source(s) 117 may be associated with companies, corporations, service providers, etc., that have agreements, partnerships, or contracts with entities associated with the server computer 115 and that offer or are considering offering various products. Generally, when a company, corporation, service provider, etc., publishes new or updated product information, the corresponding product-related data source 117 may push or send the new or updated product protocol or specification / datasheet to the server computer 115, or the server computer 115 may pull or retrieve the new or updated product information from the corresponding product-related data source 117. Therefore, the server computer 115 can store the latest product information issued by participating companies, businesses, service providers, etc.

[0020] The server computer 115 can also communicate with regulatory data sources 116. According to the embodiment, regulatory data sources 116 may be associated with various regulatory bodies or agencies that can set or enact regulations. For example, regulatory data sources 116 may be associated with the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), US Federal Communications Commission (FCC), US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), and US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). Regulatory bodies or agencies may be any combination of federal, state, municipal, local, foreign, digital, or other levels. Generally, when a regulatory body or agency issues a new or updated regulation, the corresponding regulatory data source 116 can push or transmit the new or updated regulation to the server computer 115, or the server computer 115 can pull or retrieve the new or updated regulation from the corresponding regulatory data source 116. Thus, the server computer 115 can store the latest regulations issued by participating regulatory bodies or agencies. According to the embodiment, the server computer 115 can also store historical versions of a regulation, and the historical versions can be linked to or otherwise associated with the respective current, latest, and / or integrated versions of the regulation.

[0021] In general, the server computer 115 can generate and maintain machine learning models associated with regulations and / or products using various machine learning techniques, computations, algorithms, etc. The server computer 115 may or may not first train the machine learning model(s) using a set of training data. According to one embodiment, the server computer 115 can, for example, use a machine learning model to analyze any information received from a regulation-related data source(s) 116 to analyze regulatory information, generate information derived therefrom, and generate a corresponding object model. The server computer 115 can make the results(s) of the analysis available to users of the server computer 115 for review and further selection (for example, by presenting the results(s) in a user interface). These functions are further described with reference to Figure 1B.

[0022] The server computer 115 may interface with or be configured to support memory or storage 113 capable of storing various data in one or more databases or other forms of storage. According to one embodiment, the storage 113 can store data or information associated with any machine learning models and / or object models generated by the server computer 115, any regulatory information received from regulatory data sources 116, or any product information received from electronic devices 101, 102 and / or product data sources 117.

[0023] In FIG. 1A, although shown as a single server computer 115, it should be understood that the server computer 115 can be in the form of a distributed cluster of computers, servers, machines, etc. In this implementation, an entity can utilize the distributed server computer(s) 115 as part of an on-demand cloud computing platform. Thus, when the electronic devices 101, 102 and data sources 116, 117 interface with the server computer 115, the electronic devices 101, 102 and data sources 116, 117 can actually interface with one or more of several distributed computers, servers, machines, etc. to facilitate the described functions.

[0024] Furthermore, although FIG. 1A shows two electronic devices 101, 102 and one server computer 115, it should be understood that more or fewer amounts are envisioned. For example, there can be multiple server computers, each associated with a different entity. FIG. 1B shows more specific components associated with the system and method.

[0025] FIG. 1B shows an exemplary environment 150 in which regulatory data 151 is processed into a set of regulatory object models 152 via a regulatory analyzer platform 155, according to an embodiment. The regulatory analyzer platform 155 can be implemented on any computing device including the server computer 115 (or in some implementations, one or more of the electronic devices 101, 102), as discussed with respect to FIG. 1A. The components of the computing device can include, but are not limited to, a processing unit (e.g., processor(s) 156), a system memory (e.g., memory 157), and a system bus 158 that couples various system components including the memory 157 to the processor(s) 156.

[0026] In some embodiments, the processor(s) 156 may include one or more parallel processing units capable of processing data in parallel with each other. The system bus 158 can be any of several types of bus structures, including a memory bus or memory controller, a peripheral bus, or a local bus, and can use any suitable bus architecture. By way of example, such architectures include, but are not limited to, Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus, Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) bus, Enhanced ISA (EISA) bus, Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) local bus, and Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus (also known as Mezzanine bus).

[0027] The regulatory analyzer platform 155 may further include a user interface 153 configured to present content (e.g., information associated with regulations and / or object models generated therefrom). Further, the user can select content via the user interface 153, such as navigating different information, selecting and reviewing specific object models and information about them, and / or performing other actions. The user interface 153 can be embodied as part of a touch screen configured to sense touch operations and gestures by the user. Although not shown, other system components communicatively coupled to the system bus 158 can include input devices such as a cursor control device (e.g., a mouse, trackball, touchpad, etc.) and a keyboard (not shown). A monitor or other type of display device can also be connected to the system bus 158 via an interface such as a video interface. In addition to the monitor, the computer can also include other peripheral output devices, such as a printer, which can be connected through an output peripheral interface (not shown).

[0028] Memory 157 may include various computer-readable media. Computer-readable media can be any available media accessible by a computing device and may include both volatile and non-volatile media, as well as removable and non-removable media. As a non-limiting example, computer-readable media may include computer storage media that may include non-volatile and non-non-volatile, removable and non-removable media, implemented in any way or technique for storing information such as computer-readable instructions, routines, applications (e.g., regulatory analyzer application 160), data structures, program modules, or other data.

[0029] Computer storage media may include, but are not limited to, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory, or other memory technologies, CD-ROM, digital versatile disk (DVD), or other optical disk storage devices, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tapes, magnetic disk storage devices, or other magnetic storage devices, or any other media that can be used to store desired information and are accessible by the processor 156 of the computing system.

[0030] The regulatory analyzer platform 155 operates in a networked environment and can communicate with one or more remote platforms, such as a remote platform 165, via a network(s) 162, including a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), a communications network, or other suitable network. Platform 165 can be implemented on one or more of the electronic devices 101, 102, or any computing device including a server computer 115, as discussed with respect to Figure 1A, and may include many or all of the elements described above with respect to platform 155. In some embodiments, as described herein, the regulatory analyzer application 160, further described herein, may be stored and run by the remote platform 165 instead of or in addition to platform 155.

[0031] The regulatory analysis platform 155 can store any information associated with product protocols and regulations, such as received regulatory data 151, as regulatory and product data 164. Furthermore, the regulatory analysis application 160 can use machine learning techniques such as regression analysis (e.g., logistic regression, linear regression, or polynomial regression), k-nearest neighbors, decision trees, random forests, boosting, neural networks, support vector machines, deep learning, reinforcement learning, latent semantic analysis, Bayesian networks, graph analysis, and word embeddings. In general, the regulatory analysis platform 155 can support a variety of supervised and / or unsupervised machine learning techniques.

[0032] According to one embodiment, the regulatory analyzer application 160 can analyze regulatory data 151 and generate resulting object model data 163, which may be stored in memory 157. The regulatory analyzer application 160 can enhance the object model data 163 with information generated from the analysis of the regulatory data 151 using various techniques, such as those discussed herein. Furthermore, the regulatory analyzer application 160 can output a set of regulatory object models 152, which may include the ingested regulations and metadata, along with the extracted information, topic classifications, and summaries generated by the regulatory analyzer application 160. The regulatory analyzer application 160 (or another component) can display the regulatory object models 152 (and optionally the initially received data 151) on the user interface 153 for review by a user of the regulatory analyzer platform 155. The user can choose to review and / or modify the displayed data. Figure 2 details the functionality associated with the analysis of regulatory data 151 and the generation of the set of regulatory object models 152.

[0033] In general, a computer program product according to an embodiment may include a computer-readable storage medium (e.g., standard random access memory (RAM), optical disc, universal serial bus (USB) drive, big data processing engine, NoSQL repository, etc.) in which computer-readable program code is embedded, and the computer-readable program code may be adapted to be executed by a processor 156 (e.g., to work in conjunction with an operating system) to facilitate the functions described herein. In this regard, the program code may be implemented in any desired language and may be implemented as machine code, assembly code, bytecode, interpretable source code, etc. (e.g., via Golang, Python, Scala, C, C++, Java, Actionscript, Objective-C, Javascript, CSS, XML, JSON). In some embodiments, the computer program product may be part of a cloud network of resources. In general, each of the data 151 and data 152 can be embodied as any type of electronic document, file, template, object model, etc., which may include various text content, images, figures, tables, footnotes, citations, appendices, or other reference materials, and can be stored in memory as program data on hard disk drives, magnetic disks, and / or optical disk drives within the regulatory analyzer platform 155 and / or remote platform 165. For example, a set of regulatory object models 152 can be stored in JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) format.

[0034] Figure 2 is an exemplary flowchart illustrating the various functions associated with the system and method. A server computer (for example, server computer 115 discussed in relation to Figure 1A) can perform the various functions shown in Figure 2.

[0035] Reference 200 in Figure 2 represents a corpus or set of data that can be extracted from a website or another source (such as regulation-related data sources 116, as discussed in relation to Figure 1A). The set of data 200 may include a set of electronic documents corresponding to each set of regulations, each electronic document may have a defined structure, format (e.g., HTML, PDF, XML, JSON, etc.). In embodiments, the set of data 200 can be retrieved from the source via an application programming interface (API) or via one or more other data sources (e.g., web crawling, RSS, etc.). According to embodiments, the set of data 200 may be annotated or labeled (e.g., including metadata indicating topics corresponding to regulations), or it may not be labeled.

[0036] The server computer can analyze or examine (201) the data 200 to segment or analyze it into various components or sections. In particular, depending on the format or structure of the electronic document, the server computer can identify, extract, organize, or segment the various sections of the electronic document into structured sets of text, such as titles, body text, or paragraphs, sections or subsections, itemized lists or sublists, citations, references, headers, footers, etc. In addition, the server computer can identify, extract, or segment various metadata associated with the electronic document. For example, metadata may include a set of tags or topic labels that are included with the electronic document and may be descriptions of regulations stated in the electronic document. In some embodiments, the server computer can automatically generate a set of topics or tags for the electronic document based on the content of the electronic document, such as when the electronic document does not have such topics or tags (e.g., using a data model). The server computer may, alternatively or additionally, generate sets of topics or tags for electronic documents based on additional information from internal data sources that may constitute requirements for product testing, inspection, and certification, or engineering descriptions of the product and its associated components, materials, chemicals, attributes, or characteristics.

[0037] The server computer can generate a regulatory object model (202) for each electronic document, which, according to the embodiment, may be a structured data object having a consistent format and structure throughout the object model. The regulatory object model and subsequent processing of each electronic document can be enhanced with additional data, as discussed in relation to 203, 204, 205, and 206. According to the embodiment, the regulatory object model may be in various formats, such as JSON, XML, or RDF.

[0038] In 203, the server computer can tokenize and detect sentences contained in electronic documents. In particular, the server computer can detect words and phrases in electronic documents, which are represented as n-grams, and can identify sentences or phrases as consecutive strings of n-grams. The n-grams, phrases, and sentences identified or determined by the server computer are represented in 204.

[0039] In 205, the server computer can generate a summary of an electronic document. In some embodiments, the server computer may generate a summary using relevant or representative sentences(s) from the electronic document, or based on learned representations of the regulatory text, and the summary may be an abstract summary. Generally, the server computer can generate a summary or section of a regulation using machine learning algorithms that generate a summary model from a corpus of regulatory training data. In addition, the server computer can use various techniques to rank sets of sentences according to their relevance to the regulation, extract or identify a portion of the set of sentences deemed most relevant to the regulatory requirements, and use that portion of the set of sentences to generate a summary. In other embodiments, the server computer can generate summary content from any portion of the regulatory object model using a trained language model, cosine similarity, natural language processing, or any other sentence or word similarity measure. The server computer can add the summary content (represented as 206) to the regulatory object model, thereby augmenting the regulatory object model.

[0040] In 207, the server computer may train, update, modify, or extend a summary model(s) from various parts of the corresponding regulatory object model, including, in (205), and / or additional topic information (212) and / or extracted entities (215), each of which may be assigned a probability of being applicable to the underlying regulation.

[0041] In block 208, the classifier artifact updates one or more of the topic prediction model and entity extraction model, and its output can be fed back into the object model for further training (with or without SME / analyst review). Specifically, the server computer can apply the classifier model to a portion of the text in an electronic document and calculate the probability of the applicability of a regulatory topic to that sentence. Block 210 represents sentences in the electronic document that are classified using the classifier model, and block 211 represents sentences that are filtered based on the probability of the applicability of a regulatory topic. Thus, the server computer (or its user) can output a list of sentences in the electronic document, each sentence in the list of sentences listing at least one particular regulatory topic that has a probability of meeting at least a specified threshold. For example, a user can query a sentence in a particular regulation that has the predicted regulatory topics "plastics" and "food additives" with an applicability probability of at least 85%, and / or the server can output that sentence, thereby meeting a set threshold for adding a topic assignment to that sentence in the object model. As a result, the server computer can understand which regulatory topics are discussed within various sections (block 212) of the electronic document, which can further reflect an enhanced regulatory object model.

[0042] The server computer can also extract a set of entities recognized as significant terms or phrases from the regulatory text(s). In block 209, named entity recognition (NER) artifacts can identify named entity entities mentioned in unstructured text and categorize them into predefined categories. In particular, the server computer can annotate the text (block 213). In addition, the server computer can identify significant terms and phrases based on blocks of text with topic labels exceeding a prediction threshold, according to an entity recognition model trained to identify significant terms and phrases associated with predicted regulatory topics (block 214). This generates a set of keywords and / or phrases in the text that are meaningful or significant to the electronic document and / or the regulation itself (block 215). It should be understood that the server computer may employ additional or alternative topic significance techniques or algorithms to extract sets of keywords or phrases. The server computer can add the keywords and / or phrases, along with predicted entity names, to the regulatory object model represented by block 202.

[0043] By enhancing the original regulatory object model 202, the server computer can output or utilize profiles of underlying regulations for storage in the regulatory database 216. When the server computer accesses a new, existing, or updated regulation, it can identify the regulatory structure, segment and parse the document, assign topic labels, keywords, and phrases, and add any or all of this information to the regulatory object model for that particular regulation. The database 216 can then store multiple regulatory object models representing multiple regulations, which are consistent in form and structure and can cover multiple jurisdictions. Thus, without having to consider the raw text of a given regulation, an entity or user can instead access a specific regulation stored in the database 216 to effectively identify the requirements, topics, keywords, and / or issues that may be included in the regulatory object model. According to the embodiment, the regulatory database 216 can store previous (i.e., past) versions and / or integrated versions of various regulations, and access to previous versions may reveal the differences between previous and current versions of various regulations.

[0044] For example, a regulation may be issued in a specific jurisdiction that controls the amount of lead in surface coatings for selected product categories. Based on frequency statistics across the entire corpus, the server computer can identify influential or prominent sentences (e.g., sentences identifying relevant chemical restrictions and target product types) and generate summaries using the identified sentences. The server computer can then apply a classification model to determine from the summaries a set of topic labels: lead, coatings, surface coatings, hazardous, toys, children, lead-containing, paints, furniture, and consumer products, along with the probability of applicability for each topic label.

[0045] Figure 3 shows a block diagram of an exemplary method 300 for creating an object model for regulation. Method 300 can be facilitated by an electronic device (a component associated with the server computer 115 or the regulatory analyzer platform 115 discussed with respect to Figures 1A and 1B) that can communicate with additional devices and / or data sources.

[0046] Method 300 can be initiated when an electronic device accesses a set of regulatory information corresponding to a regulation (block 305). In embodiments, the electronic device may access a set of regulatory information from one or more data sources. The electronic device may segment the set of regulatory information into a set of structured text (block 310) which may include, for example, headers, footers, titles, body text, sections, subsections, paragraphs, lists, sublists, citations, references, or other types of information blocks presented in the format of the original document, as well as a set of metadata which may include additional information about the content and subject of the regulation. In some embodiments, the set of metadata may include a set of topic labels that were originally included in the set of regulatory information. In other embodiments, the electronic device may examine the set of regulatory information, determine that no set of topic labels exists, generate a set of topic labels applicable to the set of regulatory information, and store the set of applicable topic labels together with the set of metadata.

[0047] An electronic device can generate an object model for regulation (block 315), which may include a set of structured text and a set of metadata. According to the embodiment, the object model may be in various formats, such as JSON, XML, RDF, or other formats.

[0048] An electronic device can perform linguistic analysis on an object model (block 320) to discover a set of sentences within a set of structured text. When performing the analysis, the electronic device can use one or more different linguistic and / or statistical analyses to generate a set of token n-grams from a set of sentences, or conversely, discover a set of sentences from a set of n-grams.

[0049] An electronic device can generate a summary of a regulation and / or its segment based on a set of sentences (block 325). In an embodiment, the electronic device can rank a set of sentences in a text and, based on the ranking of the sentence set, extract a portion of the sentence set. Furthermore, the electronic device can use the parsed portion of the text to generate an abstract summary.

[0050] The electronic device can use the object model and the generated summary to train a classification and / or entity recognition model (block 330). The electronic device can use the classification model to further determine a set of topics for any portion of the text in the object model (block 335). In addition, for each topic in the set of topics, the electronic device can determine the probability that the topic is applicable to the regulation (block 340). In the embodiment, the electronic device can output at least a portion of the regulation object model, the data for that portion having a probability of satisfying at least a specified threshold. It should be understood that the specified threshold may be a default value and / or configurable.

[0051] The electronic device can enhance the regulatory object model for each selected part of the object model using a regulatory summary, a set of topics, and a set of extracted attributes (block 345). Thus, by enhancing and preserving multiple object models corresponding to multiple regulations, the method can ensure a consistent format and structure of regulatory object models across multiple jurisdictions.

[0052] The following text provides a detailed description of many different embodiments, but it should be understood that the legal scope of the invention may be defined by the wording of the claims, which are set out at the end of this patent. The detailed description should be interpreted as illustrative only and does not describe all possible embodiments, as it would be impractical, if not impossible, to describe all possible embodiments. Many alternative embodiments may be implemented using either the current art or art developed after the filing date of this patent, and these remain within the scope of the claims.

[0053] Throughout this specification, multiple examples may implement components, operations, or structures described as a single example. While individual operations of one or more methods are illustrated and described as separate operations, one or more of these operations may be performed simultaneously, and they do not need to be performed in the illustrated order. Structures and functions presented as separate components within an illustrative configuration may be implemented as a combined structure or component. Similarly, structures and functions presented as single components may be implemented as separate components. These and other variations, modifications, additions, and improvements fall within the scope of the subject matter of this specification.

[0054] Furthermore, specific embodiments described herein include logic or a number of routines, subroutines, applications, or instructions. These may constitute either software (e.g., code embodied on a non-temporary machine-readable medium) or hardware. In hardware, routines, etc., are tangible units capable of performing specific operations and can be configured or arranged in specific ways. In exemplary embodiments, one or more computer systems (e.g., standalone, client, or server computer systems), or one or more hardware modules of a computer system (e.g., processors or groups of processors), may be configured by software (e.g., applications or parts of applications) as hardware modules that operate to perform specific operations described herein.

[0055] In various embodiments, hardware modules can be implemented mechanically or electronically. For example, a hardware module may comprise dedicated circuitry or logic that can be permanently configured to perform a specific operation (e.g., as a special-purpose processor such as a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) or application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC)). A hardware module may also comprise programmable logic or circuitry that can be temporarily configured by software to perform a specific operation (e.g., contained within a general-purpose processor or other programmable processor). It will be understood that the decision of whether to implement a hardware module mechanically, with dedicated and permanently configured circuitry, or with temporarily configured circuitry (e.g., configured by software) can be made considering cost and time.

[0056] Therefore, the term “hardware module” should be understood to encompass tangible entities that are physically constructed, permanently configured (e.g., physically incorporated), or temporarily configured (e.g., programmed) for the purpose of operating in a particular manner or performing a particular operation as described herein. When considering embodiments in which hardware modules are temporarily configured (e.g., programmed), each hardware module does not need to be configured or instantiated at any given time. For example, if a hardware module includes a general-purpose processor configured using software, that general-purpose processor can be configured as different hardware modules at different points in time. Thus, the software may configure the processor, for example, to constitute one hardware module at one time and another hardware module at another time.

[0057] Hardware modules can provide and receive information from other hardware modules. Therefore, the described hardware modules can be considered to be communicatively coupled. When such hardware modules exist simultaneously, communication can be achieved through signal transmission (e.g., through appropriate circuits and buses) connecting the hardware modules. In embodiments where multiple hardware modules are configured or instantiated at different times, communication between such hardware modules can be achieved, for example, through the storage and retrieval of information in a memory structure accessed by the multiple hardware modules. For example, one hardware module may perform an operation and store the output of that operation in a memory device to which the hardware module is communicatively coupled. Further hardware modules can then access the memory device to retrieve and process the stored output. Hardware modules can also initiate communication with input or output devices and operate on resources (e.g., collect information).

[0058] Various operations of the exemplary methods described herein can be performed, at least in part, by one or more processors that are temporarily (e.g., by software) or permanently configured to perform the operations in question. Whether temporarily or permanently configured, such processors may constitute a processor implementation module that operates to perform one or more operations or functions. The modules referred to herein may include processor implementation modules in some exemplary embodiments.

[0059] Similarly, any method or routine described herein can be at least partially processor-implemented. For example, at least part of the operation of a method may be performed by one or more processors or processor-implemented hardware modules. Reliable performance of the operation can be distributed among one or more processors deployed across several machines, rather than residing within a single machine. In some embodiments, one or more processors may reside in a single location (e.g., in a home environment, a work environment, or as a server farm), while in other embodiments, the processors may be distributed across multiple locations.

[0060] Reliable performance can reside not only within a single machine but also distributed across one or more processors deployed across several machines. In some exemplary embodiments, one or more processors or processor implementation modules may reside in a single location (e.g., in a home environment, a work environment, or a server farm). In other exemplary embodiments, one or more processors or processor implementation modules may be distributed across multiple locations.

[0061] Unless otherwise specified, any description in this specification using terms such as “process,” “calculate,” “calculate,” “determine,” “present,” or “display” may mean the operation or processing of a machine (e.g., a computer) that manipulates or transforms data expressed as physical (e.g., electronic, magnetic, or optical) quantities in one or more memories (e.g., volatile memory, non-volatile memory, or a combination thereof), registers, or other machine components that receive, store, transmit, or display information.

[0062] As used herein, any reference to “one embodiment” or “embodiment” means that certain elements, features, structures, or characteristics described in conjunction with an embodiment may be included in at least one embodiment. The phrase “in one embodiment” appearing in various places herein does not necessarily refer to the same embodiment.

[0063] When used herein, the terms “comprises,” “comprising,” “may include,” “including,” “has,” “having,” or any other variations thereof are intended to encompass non-exclusive inclusion. For example, a process, method, article, or apparatus that includes a list of elements is not necessarily limited to those elements alone, and may include other elements not expressly enumerated or specific to such process, method, article, or apparatus. Furthermore, unless expressly stated to the contrary, “or” means inclusive or rather exclusive or. For example, condition A or B is satisfied by any one of the following: A is true (or exists) and B is false (or does not exist), A is false (or does not exist) and B is true (or exists), and both A and B are true (or exist).

[0064] In addition, the use of "a" or "an" is used to describe elements and components of the embodiments herein. This is done solely for convenience and to give a general meaning to the description. This specification and the following claims should be read as including one or at least one, and the singular may include plural unless it is evident that otherwise.

[0065] This detailed description should be interpreted merely as an example, and since it would be impractical to describe every possible embodiment, not all possible embodiments are described.

Claims

1. A computer implementation method for enhancing an object model for regulation, A computer processor is used to comply with the aforementioned regulations and to access electronic documents containing sets of text, The computer processor determines the set of topics that describe the regulations, The aforementioned computer processor receives queries that identify a desired set of topics, The computer processor applies a classifier model to each sentence in the set of sentences to determine the probability that the sentence is applicable to at least one of the desired set of topics. The computer processor outputs a subset of the set of statements such that the probability of applicability to at least one of the desired set of topics satisfies a specified threshold, A computer implementation method comprising updating the object model for the regulation by associating a subset of the set of statements with one or more corresponding topics from the set of desired topics using the computer processor.

2. Receiving the aforementioned query means The computer implementation method according to claim 1, comprising the computer processor receiving the query from an electronic device associated with a user to identify the desired set of topics.

3. Receiving the aforementioned query means The computer implementation method according to claim 1, comprising receiving the query that identifies the desired set of topics and the regulations, via the computer processor.

4. The computer implementation method according to claim 1, further comprising displaying a subset of the set of statements and the probability of applicability for each statement in the subset via a user interface.

5. The computer implementation method according to claim 4, further comprising receiving a set of selections associated with the display of a subset of the set of statements via a user interface.

6. The computer implementation method according to claim 1, further comprising storing the updated object model in a regulatory database.

7. The computer implementation method according to claim 1, wherein the specified threshold is configurable.

8. A system for enhancing the object model for regulation, Memory for storing instructions, The system comprises one or more processors configured to interface with the memory and execute the instructions, In the above one or more processors, In response to the aforementioned regulations, access to electronic documents containing sets of sentences, Determining the set of topics that explain the aforementioned regulations, Receiving queries that identify a desired set of topics, Applying a classifier model to each sentence in the set of sentences to determine the probability that the sentence is applicable to at least one of the desired set of topics, Output a subset of the set of statements such that the probability of applicability to at least one of the set of desired topics satisfies a specified threshold, Updating the object model for the regulation by associating a subset of the set of the aforementioned statements with one or more corresponding topics from the set of the desired topics, A system configured to perform a certain action.

9. The system according to claim 8, wherein the query is received from an electronic device associated with the user.

10. The system according to claim 8, wherein the query identifies the desired set of topics and the regulations.

11. The one or more processors described above The system according to claim 8, further configured to display a subset of the set of statements and the probability of applicability for each statement in the subset via a user interface.

12. The one or more processors described above The system according to claim 11, further configured to receive a set of selections associated with the display of a subset of the set of statements via a user interface.

13. The one or more processors described above The system according to claim 8, further configured to store the updated object model in a regulatory database.

14. The system according to claim 8, wherein the specified threshold is configurable.

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