US6549897B1
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Method and system for calculating phrase-document importance
Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC
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Filing: 1998-12-17
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Granted: 2003-04-15
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Expires: 2018-12-17
Abstract
Abstract A method and system for generating a weight for phrases within each document in a collection of documents. Each document has terms such as words and numbers. Each phrase comprises component terms. Each term frequency represents the number of occurrences of a term in a document, and the phrase frequency represents the number of occurrences of a phrase in a document. To generate the weight, the weighting system first estimates a document frequency for the phrase by multiplying an estimated phrase probability of the phrase times the number of documents that contain each component term. The estimated phrase probability is an estimation of the probability that any phrase in documents that contain each component term is the phrase whose weight is to be estimated. The document frequency is the number of the documents that contain the phrase. The weighting system then estimates a total phrase frequency for the phrase as the average phrase frequency for the phrase times the estimated document frequency for the phrase. The weighting system derives the average phrase frequency from the phrase probability of the phrase and average number of terms per document. The weighting system then combines the estimated document frequency with the estimated total phrase frequency to generate the weight of the phrase.
Inventors
- 👤 Sanjeev Katariya
- 👤 William P. Jones
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
US
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-11-09 12:46
CPC Classifications
G; G06; G06F; G06F16/00; G06F16/30; G06F16/31; G06F16/313; Y; Y10; Y10S; Y10S707/00; Y10S707/99931; Y10S707/99933; Y10S707/99935; Y10S707/99936
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 78
Claim 1
Independent Claim
222 words
A method in a computer system for generating a weight for a phrase within one of a plurality of documents, each document having terms, the phrase having component terms, the method comprising: for each term, providing a term frequency that represents the number of occurrences of that term in the plurality of documents; estimating a document frequency for the phrase based on an estimated phrase probability of the phrase, the document frequency being the number of the plurality of the documents that contain the phrase, the estimated phrase probability being an estimation of the probability that any phrase in documents that contain each component term is the phrase, the phrase probability being derived from term probabilities of the component terms, the term probability of a component term being a ratio of an average of the provided term frequencies for the component terms per document that contains that component term to an average number of terms per document; estimating a total phrase frequency for the phrase based on an average phrase frequency for the phrase times the estimated document frequency for the phrase, the average phrase frequency being derived from the phrase probability of the phrase and the average number of terms per document; and combining the estimated document frequency with the estimated total phrase frequency to generate the weight of the phrase.
Claim 2
Independent Claim
222 words
A method in a computer system for generating a weight for a phrase within one of a plurality of documents, each document having terms, the phrase having component terms, the method comprising: for each term, providing a term frequency that represents the number of occurrences of that term in the plurality of documents; estimating a document frequency for the phrase based on an estimated phrase probability of the phrase, the document frequency being the number of the plurality of the documents that contain the phrase, the estimated phrase probability being an estimation of the probability that any phrase in documents that contain each component term is the phrase, the phrase probability being derived from term probabilities of the component terms, the term probability of a component term being a ratio of an average of the provided term frequencies for the component terms per document that contains that component term to an average number of terms per document; estimating a total phrase frequency for the phrase based on an average phrase frequency for the phrase times the estimated document frequency for the phrase, the average phrase frequency being derived from the phrase probability of the phrase and the average number of terms per document; and combining the estimated document frequency with the estimated total phrase frequency to generate the weight of the phrase.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
23 words
The method of claim 1 wherein the combining includes dividing the number of the plurality of the documents by the estimated document frequency.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
27 words
The method of claim 1 wherein the combining includes dividing the number of occurrences of the phrase within the one document by the estimated total phrase frequency.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
25 words
The method of claim 3 wherein the number of occurrences of the phrase within the one document is estimated based on the average phrase frequency.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
29 words
The method of claim 3 wherein the number of occurrences of the phrase within the one document is generated by counting the number of occurrences within the one document.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
25 words
The method of claim 1 including deriving the average phrase frequency by multiplying the estimated phrase probability by the average number of terms per document.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
110 words
The method of claim 1 wherein the combining is in accordance with the following formula: W tj = log α ( ( α - 1 ) + PF tj Γ ( PF t ) ) * log β N n t where W tj is the weight of the phrase, where PF tj is the phrase frequency within the one document, where PF t is the estimated total phrase frequency, where Γ is a normalizing term frequency function, where N is the number of documents, where n t is the estimated document frequency, and where bases α and β are bases of the logarithms.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
17 words
The method of claim 7 wherein the normalizing term frequency function Γ is a square root function.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
16 words
The method of claim 7 wherein the normalizing term frequency function Γ is a logarithmic function.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
27 words
The method of claim 7 wherein the bases α and β are selected so that each factor of the formula contributes equally on average to the weight.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
47 words
The method of claim 1 wherein the combining is a logarithmic function of a phrase frequency for the document normalized by the estimated total phrase frequency divided by a logarithm of the number of the plurality of documents divided by the estimated document frequency for the phrase.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim
48 words
The method of claim 1 including estimating the number of documents that contain each component term by multiplying the number of the plurality of documents by the document probability of the phrase, the document probability of the phrase being a probability that a document contains each component term.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim
40 words
The method of claim 12 wherein the document probability of a phrase is a product of the document probabilities of each component term, the document probability of a component term being a probability that a document contains that component term.
Claim 15
Dependent Claim
48 words
The method of claim 13 wherein the document probability of a component term is the document frequency of that term divided by the number of the plurality of documents, the document frequency of a term being the number of the plurality of the documents that contain that term.
Claim 16
Independent Claim
137 words
A method in a computer system for estimating a document frequency of a phrase, the document frequency indicating a number of documents of a plurality of documents that contains the phrase, each document having terms, each term having a term frequency for each document, the term frequency for a term indicating a number of occurrences of that term within the document, the phrase having component terms, the method comprising: estimating a phrase probability for the phrase, the estimated phrase probability being an estimation of the probability that any phrase in documents that contain each component term of the phrase is the phrase, the estimated phrase probability being derived from the term frequencies of the component terms; and multiplying the estimated phrase probability by a number of documents that contain each component term to estimate the document frequency.
Claim 17
Independent Claim
137 words
A method in a computer system for estimating a document frequency of a phrase, the document frequency indicating a number of documents of a plurality of documents that contains the phrase, each document having terms, each term having a term frequency for each document, the term frequency for a term indicating a number of occurrences of that term within the document, the phrase having component terms, the method comprising: estimating a phrase probability for the phrase, the estimated phrase probability being an estimation of the probability that any phrase in documents that contain each component term of the phrase is the phrase, the estimated phrase probability being derived from the term frequencies of the component terms; and multiplying the estimated phrase probability by a number of documents that contain each component term to estimate the document frequency.
Claim 18
Dependent Claim
51 words
The method of claim 15 wherein the estimated phrase probability is the product of term probabilities for each component term, the term probability of a component term being the average term frequency for that component term per document that contains that term divided by the average number of terms per document.
Claim 19
Dependent Claim
31 words
The method of claim 16 wherein the average number of terms per document is calculated by dividing a total of the term frequencies by the number of the plurality of documents.
Claim 20
Dependent Claim
54 words
The method of claim 15 wherein the number of documents that contain each component term is estimated by multiplying the number of the plurality of documents by an estimated document probability of the phrase, the estimated document probability of the phrase being a probability that a document contains each component term of the phrase.
Claim 21
Dependent Claim
23 words
The method of claim 18 wherein the estimated document probability of the phrase is a product of document probabilities for each component term.
Claim 22
Dependent Claim
30 words
The method of claim 19 wherein the document probability of each component term is the document frequency of the component term divided by the number of the plurality of documents.
Claim 23
Independent Claim
163 words
A method in a computer system for estimating a total phrase frequency of a phrase, the total phrase frequency indicating a total number of occurrences of the phrase within a plurality of documents, each document having terms, each term having a term frequency for each document, the term frequency for a term indicating a number of occurrences of that term within the document, the phrase having component terms, the method comprising: estimating a phrase probability for the phrase, the estimated phrase probability being an estimation of the probability that any phrase in documents that contain each component term of the phrase is the phrase, the estimated phrase probability being derived from the term frequencies of the component terms; estimating an average phrase frequency for the phrase by multiplying the estimated phrase probability by an average number of terms per document; and multiplying the estimated average phrase frequency by an estimated number of documents that contain the phrase to estimate the total phrase frequency.
Claim 24
Independent Claim
163 words
A method in a computer system for estimating a total phrase frequency of a phrase, the total phrase frequency indicating a total number of occurrences of the phrase within a plurality of documents, each document having terms, each term having a term frequency for each document, the term frequency for a term indicating a number of occurrences of that term within the document, the phrase having component terms, the method comprising: estimating a phrase probability for the phrase, the estimated phrase probability being an estimation of the probability that any phrase in documents that contain each component term of the phrase is the phrase, the estimated phrase probability being derived from the term frequencies of the component terms; estimating an average phrase frequency for the phrase by multiplying the estimated phrase probability by an average number of terms per document; and multiplying the estimated average phrase frequency by an estimated number of documents that contain the phrase to estimate the total phrase frequency.
Claim 25
Dependent Claim
51 words
The method of claim 21 wherein the estimated phrase probability is the product of term probabilities for each component term, the term probability of a component term being the average term frequency for that component term per document that contains that term divided by the average number of terms per document.
Claim 26
Dependent Claim
31 words
The method of claim 22 wherein the average number of terms per document is calculated by dividing a total of the term frequencies by the number of the plurality of documents.
Claim 27
Dependent Claim
38 words
The method of claim 21 wherein the estimated number of documents that contain the phrase is derived by multiplying the estimated phrase probability by a number of documents that contain each component term to estimate the document frequency.
Claim 28
Dependent Claim
54 words
The method of claim 24 wherein the number of documents that contain each component term is estimated by multiplying the number of the plurality of documents by an estimated document probability of the phrase, the estimated document probability of the phrase being a probability that a document contains each component term of the phrase.
Claim 29
Dependent Claim
23 words
The method of claim 25 wherein the estimated document probability of the phrase is a product of document probabilities for each component term.
Claim 30
Dependent Claim
30 words
The method of claim 26 wherein the document probability of each component term is the document frequency of the component term divided by the number of the plurality of documents.
Claim 31
Dependent Claim
33 words
The method of claim 21 wherein the average number of terms per document is derived by totaling all the term frequencies and dividing that total by the number of the plurality of documents.
Claim 32
Independent Claim
125 words
A method in a computer system for generating a weight for a phrase within one of a plurality of documents, each document having terms, the phrase having component terms, the method comprising: estimating a number of the plurality of documents that contain the phrase based on term frequencies of the component terms, a term frequency of a term being a number of occurrences of that term in document; estimating a total number of times the phrase occurs in the plurality of documents based on the term frequencies of the component terms; and combining the estimated number of documents that contain the phrase and the estimated total number of times that the phrase occurs in the plurality of documents to generate the weight for the phrase.
Claim 33
Independent Claim
125 words
A method in a computer system for generating a weight for a phrase within one of a plurality of documents, each document having terms, the phrase having component terms, the method comprising: estimating a number of the plurality of documents that contain the phrase based on term frequencies of the component terms, a term frequency of a term being a number of occurrences of that term in document; estimating a total number of times the phrase occurs in the plurality of documents based on the term frequencies of the component terms; and combining the estimated number of documents that contain the phrase and the estimated total number of times that the phrase occurs in the plurality of documents to generate the weight for the phrase.
Claim 34
Dependent Claim
22 words
The method of claim 29 wherein the combining also includes combining a number of occurrences of the phrase within the one document.
Claim 35
Dependent Claim
18 words
The method of claim 29 wherein the combining also includes combining the number of the plurality of documents.
Claim 36
Independent Claim
123 words
A method in a computer system for estimating a number of a plurality of documents that contain a phrase, each document having terms, the phrase having component terms, the method comprising: providing an indication of a number of occurrences of each component term within each document; providing an indication of a total number of occurrences of all terms within the plurality of documents; calculating a probability that a document contains the phrase based on the number of occurrences of each component term within each document and the total number of occurrences of all terms within the plurality of document; and multiply the calculated probability by the total number of the plurality of document to estimate that number of documents that contain the phrase.
Claim 37
Independent Claim
123 words
A method in a computer system for estimating a number of a plurality of documents that contain a phrase, each document having terms, the phrase having component terms, the method comprising: providing an indication of a number of occurrences of each component term within each document; providing an indication of a total number of occurrences of all terms within the plurality of documents; calculating a probability that a document contains the phrase based on the number of occurrences of each component term within each document and the total number of occurrences of all terms within the plurality of document; and multiply the calculated probability by the total number of the plurality of document to estimate that number of documents that contain the phrase.
Claim 38
Dependent Claim
45 words
The method of claim 32 wherein the calculating of the probability that a document contains the phrase as the product of the ratios for each component term of the number of documents that contain that component term and the number of the plurality of documents.
Claim 39
Independent Claim
145 words
A method in a computer system for estimating a total number of occurrences of a phrase within a plurality of documents, each document having terms, the phrase having component terms, the method comprising: providing an indication of a number of occurrences of each component term within each document; providing an indication of a total number of occurrences of all terms within the plurality of documents; estimating an average number of occurrences of the phrase in documents that contain the phrase based on the number of occurrences of each component term within each document and the total number of occurrences of all terms with the plurality of document; and multiplying the estimated average number of occurrences of the phrase by the number of the plurality of documents that contain the phrase to estimate the total number of occurrences of the phrase within the plurality of documents.
Claim 40
Independent Claim
145 words
A method in a computer system for estimating a total number of occurrences of a phrase within a plurality of documents, each document having terms, the phrase having component terms, the method comprising: providing an indication of a number of occurrences of each component term within each document; providing an indication of a total number of occurrences of all terms within the plurality of documents; estimating an average number of occurrences of the phrase in documents that contain the phrase based on the number of occurrences of each component term within each document and the total number of occurrences of all terms with the plurality of document; and multiplying the estimated average number of occurrences of the phrase by the number of the plurality of documents that contain the phrase to estimate the total number of occurrences of the phrase within the plurality of documents.
Claim 41
Dependent Claim
48 words
The method of claim 34 wherein the estimating of an average number of occurrences of the phrase includes calculating a probability that any phrase within the plurality of documents is the phrase and multiplying the calculated probability by an average number of occurrences of terms within a document.
Claim 42
Dependent Claim
104 words
A computer system for calculating a document frequency of a phrase, each document having terms, each term having a term frequency for each document, the phrase having component terms, comprising: a component that calculates a phrase probability for the phrase, the calculated phrase probability being an estimation of the probability that any phrase in documents that contain each component term of the phrase is the phrase, the calculated phrase probability being derived from the term frequencies of the component terms; and a component that combines the calculated phrase probability with a number of documents that contain each component term to calculate the document frequency.
Claim 43
Dependent Claim
104 words
A computer system for calculating a document frequency of a phrase, each document having terms, each term having a term frequency for each document, the phrase having component terms, comprising: a component that calculates a phrase probability for the phrase, the calculated phrase probability being an estimation of the probability that any phrase in documents that contain each component term of the phrase is the phrase, the calculated phrase probability being derived from the term frequencies of the component terms; and a component that combines the calculated phrase probability with a number of documents that contain each component term to calculate the document frequency.
Claim 44
Dependent Claim
51 words
The system of claim 36 wherein the calculated phrase probability is the product of term probabilities for each component term, the term probability of a component term being the average term frequency for that component term per document that contains that term divided by the average number of terms per document.
Claim 45
Dependent Claim
31 words
The system of claim 37 wherein the average number of terms per document is calculated by dividing a total of the term frequencies by the number of the plurality of documents.
Claim 46
Dependent Claim
52 words
The system of claim 36 wherein the number of documents that contain each component term is calculated by multiplying the number of the plurality of documents by the document probability of the phrase, the document probability of the phrase being a probability that a document contains each component term of the phrase.
Claim 47
Dependent Claim
22 words
The system of claim 39 wherein the document probability of the phrase is a product of document probabilities for each component term.
Claim 48
Dependent Claim
30 words
The system of claim 40 wherein the document probability of each component term is the document frequency of the component term divided by the number of the plurality of documents.
Claim 49
Dependent Claim
106 words
A computer system for calculating a total phrase frequency of a phrase, each document having terms, each term having a term frequency for each document, the phrase having component terms, comprising: a component for calculating a phrase probability for the phrase, the calculated phrase probability being derived from the term frequencies of the component terms; a component for calculating an average phrase frequency for the phrase by multiplying the calculated phrase probability by an average number of terms per document; and a component for multiplying the calculated average phrase frequency by a calculated number of documents that contain the phrase to calculate the total phrase frequency.
Claim 50
Dependent Claim
106 words
A computer system for calculating a total phrase frequency of a phrase, each document having terms, each term having a term frequency for each document, the phrase having component terms, comprising: a component for calculating a phrase probability for the phrase, the calculated phrase probability being derived from the term frequencies of the component terms; a component for calculating an average phrase frequency for the phrase by multiplying the calculated phrase probability by an average number of terms per document; and a component for multiplying the calculated average phrase frequency by a calculated number of documents that contain the phrase to calculate the total phrase frequency.
Claim 51
Dependent Claim
51 words
The system of claim 42 wherein the calculated phrase probability is the product of term probabilities for each component term, the term probability of a component term being the average term frequency for that component term per document that contains that term divided by the average number of terms per document.
Claim 52
Dependent Claim
31 words
The system of claim 43 wherein the average number of terms per document is calculated by dividing a total of the term frequencies by the number of the plurality of documents.
Claim 53
Dependent Claim
38 words
The system of claim 42 wherein the calculated number of documents that contain the phrase is derived by multiplying the calculated phrase probability by a number of documents that contain each component term to calculate the document frequency.
Claim 54
Dependent Claim
54 words
The system of claim 45 wherein the number of documents that contain each component term is calculated by multiplying the number of the plurality of documents by a calculated document probability of the phrase, the calculated document probability of the phrase being a probability that a document contains each component term of the phrase.
Claim 55
Dependent Claim
23 words
The system of claim 46 wherein the calculated document probability of the phrase is a product of document probabilities for each component term.
Claim 56
Dependent Claim
30 words
The system of claim 47 wherein the document probability of each component term is the document frequency of the component term divided by the number of the plurality of documents.
Claim 57
Dependent Claim
33 words
The system of claim 42 wherein the average number of terms per document is derived by totaling all the term frequencies and dividing that total by the number of the plurality of documents.
Claim 58
Dependent Claim
182 words
A computer-readable medium containing instructions for causing a computer system to generate a weight for a phrase within one of a plurality of documents, each document having terms, the phrase having component terms, by: generating a term frequency that represents the number of occurrences of that term in the plurality of documents; estimating a document frequency for the phrase based on an estimated phrase probability of the phrase, the phrase probability being derived from term probabilities of the component terms, the term probability of a component term being a ratio of an average of the generated term frequencies for the component terms per document that contains that component term to an average number of terms per document; estimating a total phrase frequency for the phrase based on an average phrase frequency for the phrase times the estimated document frequency for the phrase, the average phrase frequency being derived from the phrase probability of the phrase and the average number of terms per document; and combining the estimated document frequency with the estimated total phrase frequency to generate the weight of the phrase.
Claim 59
Dependent Claim
182 words
A computer-readable medium containing instructions for causing a computer system to generate a weight for a phrase within one of a plurality of documents, each document having terms, the phrase having component terms, by: generating a term frequency that represents the number of occurrences of that term in the plurality of documents; estimating a document frequency for the phrase based on an estimated phrase probability of the phrase, the phrase probability being derived from term probabilities of the component terms, the term probability of a component term being a ratio of an average of the generated term frequencies for the component terms per document that contains that component term to an average number of terms per document; estimating a total phrase frequency for the phrase based on an average phrase frequency for the phrase times the estimated document frequency for the phrase, the average phrase frequency being derived from the phrase probability of the phrase and the average number of terms per document; and combining the estimated document frequency with the estimated total phrase frequency to generate the weight of the phrase.
Claim 60
Dependent Claim
24 words
The computer-readable medium of claim 50 wherein the combining includes dividing the number of the plurality of the documents by the estimated document frequency.
Claim 61
Dependent Claim
28 words
The computer-readable medium of claim 50 wherein the combining includes dividing the number of occurrences of the phrase within the one document by the estimated total phrase frequency.
Claim 62
Dependent Claim
26 words
The computer-readable medium of claim 52 wherein the number of occurrences of the phrase within the one document is estimated based on the average phrase frequency.
Claim 63
Dependent Claim
30 words
The computer-readable medium of claim 52 wherein the number of occurrences of the phrase within the one document is generated by counting the number of occurrences within the one document.
Claim 64
Dependent Claim
26 words
The computer-readable medium of claim 50 including deriving the average phrase frequency by multiplying the estimated phrase probability by the average number of terms per document.
Claim 65
Dependent Claim
48 words
The computer-readable medium of claim 50 wherein the combining is a logarithmic function of a phrase frequency for the document normalized by the estimated total phrase frequency divided by a logarithm of the number of the plurality of documents divided by the estimated document frequency for the phrase.
Claim 66
Dependent Claim
49 words
The computer-readable medium of claim 50 including estimating the number of documents that contain each component term by multiplying the number of the plurality of documents by the document probability of the phrase, the document probability of the phrase being a probability that a document contains each component term.
Claim 67
Dependent Claim
41 words
The computer-readable medium of claim 57 wherein the document probability of a phrase is a product of the document probabilities of each component term, the document probability of a component term being a probability that a document contains that component term.
Claim 68
Dependent Claim
49 words
The computer-readable medium of claim 58 wherein the document probability of a component term is the document frequency of that term divided by the number of the plurality of documents, the document frequency of a term being the number of the plurality of the documents that contain that term.
Claim 69
Dependent Claim
111 words
A computer-readable medium containing instructions that cause a computer system to generate a weight for a phrase within one of a plurality of documents, each document having terms, the phrase having component terms, by: estimating a number of the plurality of documents that contain the phrase based on term frequencies of the component terms; estimating a total number of times the phrase occurs in the plurality of documents based on the term frequencies of the component terms; and combining the estimated number of documents that contain the phrase and the estimated total number of times that the phrase occurs in the plurality of documents to generate the weight for the phrase.
Claim 70
Dependent Claim
111 words
A computer-readable medium containing instructions that cause a computer system to generate a weight for a phrase within one of a plurality of documents, each document having terms, the phrase having component terms, by: estimating a number of the plurality of documents that contain the phrase based on term frequencies of the component terms; estimating a total number of times the phrase occurs in the plurality of documents based on the term frequencies of the component terms; and combining the estimated number of documents that contain the phrase and the estimated total number of times that the phrase occurs in the plurality of documents to generate the weight for the phrase.
Claim 71
Dependent Claim
23 words
The computer-readable medium of claim 60 wherein the combining also includes combining a number of occurrences of the phrase within the one document.
Claim 72
Dependent Claim
19 words
The computer-readable medium of claim 60 wherein the combining also includes combining the number of the plurality of documents.
Claim 73
Dependent Claim
93 words
A computer-readable medium containing instructions that cause a computer system to estimate a number of a plurality of documents that contain a phrase, each document having terms, the phrase having component terms, by: calculating a probability that a document contains the phrase based on a number of occurrences of each component term within each document and a total number of occurrences of all terms within the plurality of document; and multiply the calculated probability by the total number of the plurality of documents to estimate that number of documents that contain the phrase.
Claim 74
Dependent Claim
93 words
A computer-readable medium containing instructions that cause a computer system to estimate a number of a plurality of documents that contain a phrase, each document having terms, the phrase having component terms, by: calculating a probability that a document contains the phrase based on a number of occurrences of each component term within each document and a total number of occurrences of all terms within the plurality of document; and multiply the calculated probability by the total number of the plurality of documents to estimate that number of documents that contain the phrase.
Claim 75
Dependent Claim
46 words
The computer-readable medium of claim 63 wherein the calculating of the probability that a document contains the phrase as the product of the ratios for each component term of the number of documents that contain that component term and the number of the plurality of documents.
Claim 76
Dependent Claim
115 words
A computer-readable medium containing instructions for causing a computer system to estimate a total number of occurrences of a phrase within a plurality of documents, each document having terms, the phrase having component terms, by: estimating an average number of occurrences of the phrase in documents that contain the phrase based on a number of occurrences of each component term within each document and a total number of occurrences of all terms with the plurality of document; and multiplying the estimated average number of occurrences of the phrase by the number of the plurality of document that contain the phrase to estimate the total number of occurrences of the phrase within the plurality of documents.
Claim 77
Dependent Claim
115 words
A computer-readable medium containing instructions for causing a computer system to estimate a total number of occurrences of a phrase within a plurality of documents, each document having terms, the phrase having component terms, by: estimating an average number of occurrences of the phrase in documents that contain the phrase based on a number of occurrences of each component term within each document and a total number of occurrences of all terms with the plurality of document; and multiplying the estimated average number of occurrences of the phrase by the number of the plurality of document that contain the phrase to estimate the total number of occurrences of the phrase within the plurality of documents.
Claim 78
Dependent Claim
49 words
The computer-readable medium of claim 65 wherein the estimating of an average number of occurrences of the phrase includes calculating a probability that any phrase within the plurality of documents is the phrase and multiplying the calculated probability by an average number of occurrences of terms within a document.
References Cited (Backward Citations)
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