Hierarchical Document Comparison for Substantial Change Detection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing document comparison systems struggle to accurately identify substantial differences in documents with hierarchical structures due to changes caused by merging or dividing headings, making it difficult to recognize true content changes.
Innovation Solution
A document comparison system that processes documents with headings and bodies, determines corresponding headings, generates combined bodies, and compares them to extract differences, thereby distinguishing between formal and substantial changes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If document comparison is performed on documents with hierarchical structures using conventional methods, then all portions corresponding to headings that have been increased or decreased by merging and/or division are detected as differences, but this causes difficulty in recognizing substantial differences between documents
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the document comparison process into two distinct stages: first identifying structural differences (merging/division of headings) and then identifying substantial content differences. This segmentation allows the system to separate formal structural changes from meaningful content changes, preventing structural changes from masking substantial differences. The comparison unit compares bodies before and after segmentation to identify substantial differences independently.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts and separately analyzes structural changes (merging and division of headings) from the overall document comparison process. By taking out the structural transformation information and processing it separately, the system can then focus on identifying substantial content differences without the noise of formal structural changes. This extraction is achieved through the transformation information generation unit that specifically identifies merging and division operations.
2Reliability
If conventional document comparison methods are used on hierarchical documents, then formal changes from merging and/or dividing headings are detected, but this increases complexity in distinguishing formal changes from substantial changes
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary action by first identifying and recording structural transformations (merging and division of headings) before conducting the main content comparison. The transformation information generation unit预先 identifies these structural changes and stores them in a transformation information storage unit. This preliminary identification simplifies the subsequent comparison process by allowing the system to exclude or separately handle structural changes, reducing the complexity of distinguishing them from substantial differences.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces transformation information as an intermediary element that mediates between the original documents and the comparison process. This transformation information, which specifically captures merging and division operations, acts as a filter or guide that helps the comparison unit focus on substantial differences. The intermediary transformation information simplifies the comparison logic by pre-processing structural changes.
Data Source
AI summary
A document comparison system is provided. Processing circuitry determines that a specific heading of a first document corresponds to corresponding headings of a second document. The processing circuitry generates a combined body by combining corresponding bodies of the second document with each other. The processing circuitry compares a specific body of the first document with the combined body of the second document to extract a difference between the specific body and the combined body.