Abstract
Natural Language Processing techniques for text-mining and information retrieval are finding application in the analysis of many kinds of documentation, from technical documentation to World Wide Web. Particularly, Functional Analysis techniques are based on the extraction of the interactions between the entities described in the document: these interactions are expressed as Subject-Action-Object (SAO) triples (obtainable using a suitable syntactic parser) which represent a concept in its most synthesizing form. In this work, the techniques developed for a functional analysis of patents and their implementation in the PAT-Analyzer tool are presented. The same technique has been properly tailored and applied to the analysis of software requirements documents. Current work in the direction of the development of a SAO-based Content Analysis of technical documentation is presented.
Chapter PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Keywords
- Shape Memory Alloy
- Natural Language Processing
- Requirement Engineer
- Software Requirement
- Requirement Document
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
References
Ambriola, V., Gervasi, V.: An environment for cooperative construction of naturallanguage requirement bases. In: Proc. of the 8th Conference on Software Engineering Environments, March 1997, pp. 124–130. IEEE Computer Society Press, Los Alamitos (1997)
Ambriola, V., Gervasi, V.: Experiences with Domain-Based Parsing of Natural Language Requirements. In: Proc. 4 th International Conference NLDB 1999, Klagenfurt, Austria (1999)
Ambriola, V., Gervasi, V.: On the parallel refinement of NL requirements and UML diagrams. In: Proc. of the ETAPS 2001 Workshop on Trasformations in UML, Genova, Italy (April 2001)
Ambriola, V., Gervasi, V.: Synthesizing ASMs from natural language requirements. In: Proc. of the 8th EUROCAST Workshop on Abstract State Machines (February 2001)
Cascini, G., Abate, V., Lucchesi, D., Rissone, P.: System and Method for performing functional analyses making use of a plurality of inputs. Patent Application 02425149.8, European Patent Office, 14.3.2002, International Publication Number WO 03/077154 A2 (September 18, 2003)
Cascini, G., Rissone, P.: PAT-Analyzer: a tool to speed-up patent analyses with a TRIZ perspective. In: Proc. of the ETRIA World Conference: TRIZ Future 2003, Aachen, Germany (November 12-14, 2003)
Cockburn, A.: Writing effective Use Cases. Addison-Wesley, Reading (2000)
Dong, Agogino, A.M.: Text Analysis for Constructing Design Representation. Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Engineering 11(2) (1997)
Fabbrini, F., Fusani, M., Gnesi, S., Lami, G.: An Automatic Quality Evaluation for Natural Language Requirements. In: REFSQ 2001 International Workshop, Interlaken, Switzerland (June 2001)
Fantechi, A., Gnesi, S., Lami, G., Maccari, A.: Application of Linguistic Techniques for Use Case Analysis. Requirements Engineering Journal 8(3), 161–170 (2003)
Fantechi, A., Gnesi, S., Lami, G.: A Relation-based Approach to Use Case Analysis. In: Proceedings of the 9th International Workshop on Requirements Engineering: Foundation for Sofware Quality - REFSQ 2003, Velden, Austria, June 16-17 (2003)
Ikovenko, S.: Patent Breaking. Invention Machine 4th Annual European User Group Meeting - Bergamo, Italy (24-26/9/2000)
ISO/IEC TR 15504 (Parts 1-9) (1998)
Kosaka, A., et al.: US Pat. 6,459,855 – Actuator (October 1, 2002) http://www.uspto.gov/patft/index.html
Krippendorff, K.: Content Analysis: An Introduction to Its Methodology, 2nd edn., December 2003. Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks (2003)
Mann, D.: Hands On Systematic Innovation. CREAX 2002
Mich, L.: Ambiguity identification and resolution in software development: a linguistic approach to improve the quality of systems. In: Proc. WESS 2001 International Workshop, Firenze (November 2001)
Mich, L., Garigliano, R.: Ambiguity Measures in Requirement Engineering. In: Int. Conf. On Software Theory and Practice - ICS 2000, Beijing, China (August 2000)
Neri, F., Raffaelli, R.: A new way of exploring patent databases (2003), http://www.synthema.it
Patent Rules: Title 37 - Code of Federal Regulations - Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights, last update (December 18, 2000) http://www.uspto.gov/patft/index.html
Phrasys Natural Language Processing Software on-line, See http://www.phrasys.com
Shimomura, Y., Yoshioka, M., Takeda, H., Umeda, Y., Tomiyama, T.: Representation of Design Object Based on the Functional Evolution Process Mode. Journal of Mechanical Design (ASME) 120 (1998)
Shiozuka, K.: US Pat. 6,097,012 - Induction-heating bender (August 1, 2000) http://www.uspto.gov/patft/index.html
Siemens, R.: Practical Content Analysis Techniques for Text-Retrieval in Large. In: Un-tagged Text-bases. Presented at the ACM SIGDOC 1993 Conference, University of Waterloo (October 1993)
Sleator, D.D.K., Temperley, D.: Parsing English with a Link Grammar. In: Third International Workshop on Parsing Technologies (August 1993)
Spinakis, A., Panagopoulou, G., Chatzimakri, A.: STING: A Text Mining Tool supporting Business Intelligence. In: NEMIS Annual Conference, University of Rome “La Sapienza” (23.1.2004)
Suh, N.P.: The Principles of Design. Oxford Press, Oxford (1990)
Weber, R.P.: Basic Content Analysis. Sage Publications (August 1990)
WebFountain, http://www.almaden.ibm.com/webfountain
Wilson, W.M., Rosenberg, L.H., Hyatt, L.E.: Automated Analysis of Requirement Specifications. In: ICSE 1997, Boston, MA (May 1997)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2004 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Cascini, G., Fantechi, A., Spinicci, E. (2004). Natural Language Processing of Patents and Technical Documentation. In: Marinai, S., Dengel, A.R. (eds) Document Analysis Systems VI. DAS 2004. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 3163. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-28640-0_48
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-28640-0_48
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-23060-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-28640-0
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive