Word Cloud Comparison for Document Similarity Analysis

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Solution Overview

Problem

Efficiently processing and finding relevant content in large documents is challenging due to the difficulty in visualizing and understanding information, necessitating a novel method to compare document similarity.

Innovation Solution

The method combines word clouds to visually represent similar knowledge sets by comparing the intersection and frequency of significant words between documents, using a mathematical formalism that incorporates word stemming frequency analysis and string searches to determine the similarity between documents.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Loss of information

If traditional text processing methods are used to analyze large documents, then comprehensive content analysis is achieved, but information visualization and understanding become difficult

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveinformation understandingVSAvoidinformation visualization
Core Design Contradiction:
Loss of informationVSEase of operation

Solution Approach 1:

The patent creates visual copies of text data through word clouds, where words are represented as graphical elements with sizes proportional to their frequency. This copying approach transforms abstract text into visual representations that are easier to understand and compare, directly addressing the contradiction between comprehensive analysis and visualization ease.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #26Copying

Solution Approach 2:

The patent transitions from one-dimensional text analysis to two-dimensional visual comparison by displaying word clouds side-by-side and enabling visual intersection analysis. This dimensional change allows users to quickly grasp document similarities and differences without getting lost in text details, resolving the visualization difficulty.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #17Another dimension (Dimensionality change)

2Measurement precision

If detailed word frequency analysis is performed on all words, then accurate document similarity is determined, but processing time increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvedocument similarity accuracyVSAvoidprocessing time
Core Design Contradiction:
Measurement precisionVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The patent extracts only the most significant words from documents to create word clouds, excluding common stop words and focusing on meaningful terms. This extraction approach maintains similarity measurement accuracy while reducing the data volume that requires processing, thus decreasing processing time.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Solution Approach 2:

The patent performs partial analysis by focusing on visual comparison of word frequency distributions rather than exhaustive analysis of every word. The visual intersection method allows users to quickly identify key similarities and differences without processing the complete word set in detail, achieving acceptable accuracy with reduced computational effort.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #16Partial or excessive action

3Productivity

If visual word cloud comparison is used to quickly identify similar documents, then information processing efficiency is improved, but complex similarity calculation algorithms are required

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveinformation processing efficiencyVSAvoidalgorithm complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
ProductivityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent replaces complex numerical similarity calculation algorithms with visual comparison mechanisms. Instead of computing similarity scores through mathematical formulas, the system uses visual intersection analysis of word clouds, allowing users to intuitively assess document similarity through graphical overlap patterns, thereby reducing algorithmic complexity while maintaining processing efficiency.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #28Mechanics substitution (Replace mechanical system)

Data Source

PatentUS8402030B1Textual document analysis using word cloud comparison
Publication Date: 2013.03.19 RAYTHEON CO
  • US8402030B1 patent drawing
  • US8402030B1 patent drawing
  • US8402030B1 patent drawing

AI summary

A system and method textually analyze documents. A frequency distribution is generated for the documents, and an intersection between the documents is determined. For each word in the intersection, the frequency of the word in the first document is compared with the frequency of the word in the second document, and the lower frequency is selected. A similarity measure between the first document and the second document is determined as a function of a count of the words in the intersection, a count of the words in the second document, the selected lower frequencies, and the frequency distribution for the words in the second document.