Hierarchical Document Relationship Display for Process Analysis
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Solution Overview
Problem
As the number of documents analyzed increases, displays of chronologically sequenced views become difficult to understand, making it challenging to determine errors or issues in document processes, and existing technologies lack effective methods to visualize relationships between documents beyond simple chronological order.
Innovation Solution
The method involves identifying and displaying hierarchically related documents by searching for documents upstream, downstream, or both, using relationship types, and presenting this information in a hierarchical format, allowing users to understand document relationships and processes more effectively.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If chronologically sequenced views of documents are used, then documents can be displayed in order, but it becomes difficult to understand the meaning of the data and determine errors or problems as the number of documents increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the chronological document sequence into hierarchical groups based on relationship types. Instead of displaying all documents in a single chronological list, the system divides them into parent-child relationships, grouping related documents together under parent documents. This segmentation makes it easier to understand document relationships by organizing them into meaningful clusters rather than a flat chronological sequence.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent adds a hierarchical dimension to the traditional chronological view. Documents are organized not only by time (one dimension) but also by relationship hierarchy (another dimension). This creates a two-dimensional organization where documents can be viewed both chronologically and hierarchically, allowing users to understand relationships by navigating through parent-child links while preserving temporal context.
2Loss of information
If all documents are displayed in chronological order, then complete document history is provided, but computing resources are consumed and understanding of relationships becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and highlights only the relationship-critical information from the complete chronological document set. Instead of displaying all documents equally, the system identifies parent-child relationships and extracts the hierarchical structure, presenting only the essential relationship information needed to understand document connections. This reduces information overload while preserving the key relationship data.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent performs preliminary analysis to identify and organize document relationships before display. The system pre-processes the document set to establish parent-child relationships and hierarchical structures, so that when documents are displayed, the relationship information is already organized and ready for efficient presentation. This preliminary organization reduces the computing resources needed during actual display operations.
3Reliability
If hierarchical display of documents is implemented, then document relationships are clarified, but the display structure becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies different display qualities to different parts of the document hierarchy. Parent documents receive one level of formatting and detail, while child documents receive another level. This local differentiation helps users quickly identify relationship types and understand the hierarchy without requiring the entire display structure to be uniformly complex. Each section of the hierarchy is optimized for its specific function.
Data Source
AI summary
Techniques and solutions are provided for searching for documents upstream, downstream, or both upstream and downstream of a given document, and providing information about relationships between documents in the results. To help users understand relationships between documents, different “voices” can be used in a result display, such as an “active voice” being used for an upstream search and a “passive voice” being used for a downstream search. If desired, results can be limited or filtered, such as limiting a search to a particular relationship type or types, or providing a limit to an amount of indirection between documents. Disclosed techniques can provide more useful information about a document flow, and can reduce computing resources used in generating such displays.