SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR SITUATED REASONING WITH INFORMATION

This application claims the benefits of the following U.S. patent applications: U.S. Patent

Application 12/798,487 filed on April 5, 2010, U.S. Patent Application 12/105,143 filed on

April 17, 2008 and U.S. Provisional patent application 61/166,579 filed on 3 April 2009.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention disclosed herein relates to a system architecture and method to allow

a user to create situations and have information suitably presented as a result, such

10 i n fo rma t i on collected from disparate sources, ontologically harmonized and suitably

assembled for that situation.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Computer and other electronic information technologies exist to gather,

comprehend and manipulate vast quantities of information. However, for most uses the

15 i n fo rma t i on needs to be structured in order to be accessed and displayed. In general, the

more sophisticated and complex these structures in the context of the problem to be

addressed, the more useful they are. Computing systems have been used to structure this

information, but the results have not been optimal. Information is often already well-

structured before it is accessed, so it is difficult or impossible to anticipate the context of a

20 p a r t i c u l a r use. Moreover, information differently controlled or generated in often different

ways is structured using fundamentally different underlying structuring methods,

technologies and ontologies. As a result, information is not well structured for many

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Figure 1The Hardware Architecture of the System

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Clients

Topoiesis Servers

Information Servers

Information Stores Metainformation Stores

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Figure 2Major Information Flow

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Information

StructuredInformation

SituatedInformation

FactReasoner

DynamicsReasoner

Situation Formatter

FactFormatter

Figure 3Infons and Infon Structure

<Mary ran to the store>301

≪run; Mary, store:く≫302

303 304 305 306 303

く= く1 ⎔く2 ⎔く3

306 307 308 309

≪run; Mary, store:く≫ ≪buy; person, food:く≫

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の1 ⊨ ≪run; Mary, store:く≫ ≪buy; person, food:く≫

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Figure 4Infon Ontology Graphs

≪run; Mary, store:く≫401

≪operate; business, sell≫

≪...≫

≪...≫

≪...≫≪...≫

≪...≫

≪...≫

≪...≫

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402

404 404

404

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≪buy; person, food:く≫

≪...≫≪...≫

≪...≫≪...≫

≪...≫

≪...≫

402

Figure 5Cells As Sets from Ontology Trees

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Figure 6Cell Flow

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Figure 7Adding Points to a Cell

Figure 8Removing Points from a Cell

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804

Figure 7a Figure 7b

Figure 8bFigure 8a

702b 702b702a

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Figure 9Adding Functions to a Cell

Figure 10Removing Functions from a Cell

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Figure 9a

Figure 9b

Figure 10b

Figure 10a

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Figure 11The Functional Reactive Fabric

Clients

Topoiesis Servers

Satellite Servers

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User initiates change to information

Infon composition tool transforms request into infon expressions for the

computation tree

Topoiesis Infons are decomposed into Cell construction commands

Cell structure adjusts the Functional Reactive Fabric

Information flows through the Reactive Fabric and is suitably transformed

Transformed information is presented as a structure and the user format

computed

A user interface displays the reinterpreted information according to

the desired format

Figure 12Reaction to User Input

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Composed infon expression

Does expression already exist?

Is the expression a function application?

Is the function a lambda expression?

Evaluate functions and input

Perform as described in functional compositor

Store and return result

Return the stored expression

Return the computed expression

Return the computed expression

No

Yes

No

Yes

Yes

No

Figure 13Lambda Evaluation

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In Chicago

Using Windows Computer

AuthorTyping

Figure 14Infon Nesting

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≪is; Author, typing:く≫1412

Equals

In Get(Up Left)

Object

Boolean

Fact

Boolean

Filter

Input

Get(Up Left)

Set Cons

Set Cons

Figure 15Tree Computation

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Figure 16A Simple Single Field Outline

Political Entities

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United States

Ukraine

16th Century Colonies

Cartographers

Virginia

Kiev

Virginia

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Information about Political Boundaries

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Figure 17An Infon Expander

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1702<Leonard gets a phone call from an unknown>

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Memento (Cinematic, Linear)Topoiesis Infons

<a message is slipped under the door>

≪rings; Leonard, phone: く≫≪rings; Leonard, phone: く≫≪rings; Leonard, phone: く≫

≪rings; Leonard, phone: く≫

≪communicate; device, voice≫≪communicate; device, voice≫≪communicate; device, voice≫

---------

---------

-----------------

-----

-------

-------

------

---------------------

---------------

----- --------- ------

------

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Memento (Cinematic, Linear)Topoiesis Infon Vectors

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<Leonard gets a phone call from an unknown>

<a message is slipped under the door>

Figure 18A Hilbert Space Visualization

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<the screen goes temporarily dark><Tommy's Motive is fractionally played in the score><Leonard is not surprised as we would expect>

<We can see the address on the envelope>

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Memento (Cinematic, Linear)Ontology Graph

Figure 19An Ontology Graph Visualization

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<Leonard gets a phone call from an unknown>≪rings; Leonard, phone: く≫≪rings; Leonard, phone: く≫≪rings; Leonard, phone: く≫

≪rings; Leonard, phone: く≫

≪communicate; device, voice≫≪communicate; device, voice≫≪communicate; device, voice≫

---------

---------

-----------------

-----

-------

-------

------

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----- --------- ------

------

<the ring is faster than normal>

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Figure 20Typed Intersituation Links2001 2002

Figure 21Display of a Remote Target

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2105<Leonard walks into his hotel room>

Memento (Plot, Clues)Topoiesis Infons

<the car's license plate has lower case "l" for 1>

<Leonard's name is remembered incorrectly>

<Natalie's handwriting is on the coaster>

<score and frame multiplying is matched>

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<film frames are multipled>

Memento (Cinematic, Effects)Topoiesis Infons

<numeric rhythms repeat><color balance is different in odd frames>

<score and frame multiplying is matched>

<Leonard walks into his hotel room>

Memento (Plot, Clues)Topoiesis Infons

<the car's license plate has lower case "l" for 1>

<Leonard's name is remembered incorrectly>

<Natalie's handwriting is on the coaster>

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2005

Figure 22A Video and Video Scrubber

<Leonard walks into his hotel room>

Memento (Plot, Clues)Topoiesis Infons

<the car's license plate has lower case "l" for 1>

<Leonard's name is remembered incorrectly>

<Natalie's handwriting is on the coaster>

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Figure 23Situation Cloud Flows

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Figure 24Cloud Details

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Figure 25Ontological Zones

Figure 26Ontology Graph Influences

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