Analysis, inference, and visualization of social networks

Abstract

A method and system for automated generation of social networks. A graphical user interface receives a user query for an entity of interest, and outputs a graphical network showing entities and associations related to the entity of interest. A search engine interface transmits the query to a search engine, and receives references to documents. A named entity extractor downloads a selection of the documents, and generates a list of named entities referenced in the downloaded documents. A network inference module receives each list of named entities, and generates associations between the named entities in each list. An entity matcher operates on the associations to consolidate them in instances wherein differently named entities are determined to be the same named entity, and provides a consolidated list of named entities and associations to the user interface for display as a graphical network.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A computer implemented system for inferring social networks, the system comprising:
 a computer having a hardware microprocessor, the hardware microprocessor being configured to execute:
 a graphical user interface that receives, from a user, a query relating to an entity of interest other than the user, and that responsively provides, to the user, a graphical network of entities and associations related to the entity of interest; 
 a search engine interface that transmits, over the communication network to a search engine, the query received by the graphical user interface, and that responsively receives, over the communication network from the search engine, search results that refer to a plurality of digitally encoded documents related to the entity of interest; 
 a named entity extractor that downloads, over the communication network, a selection of the referenced digitally encoded documents, and that extracts named entities from the downloaded documents; 
 a network inference module that constructs an inferred network of associations between the extracted named entities from lexical analysis of the text of the downloaded documents; and 
 an entity matcher that operates on the associations generated by the network inference module so as to disambiguate differently named entities when the differently named entities are determined to be the same entity, and that provides a resulting list of disambiguated named entities and the network of associations between the disambiguated named entities to the graphical user interface for display as the graphical network; 
   
       wherein the entity matcher operates by:
 alphabetically sorting the extracted named entities to form a sorted list; 
 after sorting, comparing each entity name except the first to a previous entity name to determine if the two entity names are duplicates; 
 when both entity names are duplicates, determining that both named entities refer to the same entity if there is a third named entity to which both named entities were associated by the network inference module; and 
 when both named entities refer to the same entity, merging both named entities in the sorted list to form a single named entity. 
 
     
     
         2 . A system according to  claim 1 , further comprising a risk evaluator, coupled to the entity matcher, that uses a digital process to evaluate a risk factor for the entity of interest. 
     
     
         3 . A system according to  claim 1 , wherein the entity of interest is selected from the group consisting of a person, a company, a location, an event, a date and a phone number. 
     
     
         4 . A system according to  claim 1 , wherein the associations between the entities are selected from the group consisting of a family relationship, a business partnership, ownership, a legal relationship and a financial relationship. 
     
     
         5 . A system according to  claim 1 , wherein the search engine is an Internet search engine, and wherein the plurality of documents is a plurality of web documents. 
     
     
         6 . A method of inferring social networks, the method comprising:
 receiving, from a user via a graphical user interface, a query relating to an entity of interest other than the user;   transmitting the query over a communication network to a search engine;   responsively receiving, over the communication network from the search engine, search results that refer to a plurality of digitally encoded documents related to the entity of interest;   downloading, over the communication network, a selection of the referenced digitally encoded documents;   extracting named entities from the downloaded selection of documents;   constructing an inferred network of associations between the extracted named entities from lexical analysis of the text of the downloaded selection of documents;   disambiguating differently named entities when the differently named entities are determined to be the same entity; and   providing, to the graphical user interface for display as a graphical network, the disambiguated named entities and the network of associations between the disambiguated named entities;   wherein disambiguating includes:
 alphabetically sorting the extracted named entities to form a sorted list; 
 after sorting, comparing each entity name except the first to a previous entity name to determine if the two entity names are duplicates; 
 when both entity names are duplicates, determining that both named entities refer to the same entity if there is a third named entity to which both named entities were associated by the network inference module; and 
 when both named entities refer to the same entity, merging both named entities in the sorted list to form a single named entity. 
   
     
     
         7 . A method according to  claim 6 , further comprising computing a risk factor for the entity of interest based on the named entities and the associations between the named entities. 
     
     
         8 . A method according to  claim 6 , wherein the entity of interest is selected from the group consisting of a person, a company, a location, an event, a date and a phone number. 
     
     
         9 . A method according to  claim 6 , wherein the associations between the entities are selected from the group consisting of a family relationship, a business partnership, ownership, a legal relationship and a financial relationship. 
     
     
         10 . A method according to  claim 6 , wherein the search engine is an Internet search engine, and wherein the plurality of documents is a plurality of web documents. 
     
     
         11 . A computer program product for inferring social networks, the computer program product comprising a tangible, non-transitory computer usable medium having computer readable program code thereon, the computer readable program code comprising:
 program code for receiving, from a user via a graphical user interface, a query relating to an entity of interest other than the user;   program code for causing the query to be transmitted over a communication network to a search engine;   program code for responsively receiving, over the communication network from the search engine, search results that refer to a plurality of digitally encoded documents related to the entity of interest;   program code for causing a selection of the referenced digitally encoded documents to be downloaded over the communication network;   program code for extracting named entities from the downloaded selection of documents;   program code for constructing an inferred network of associations between the extracted named entities from lexical analysis of the text of the downloaded documents;   program code for disambiguating differently named entities when the differently named entities are determined to be the same entity; and   program code for providing, to the graphical user interface for display as a graphical network, the disambiguated named entities and the network of associations between the disambiguated named entities;   wherein the program code for disambiguating includes program code for:
 alphabetically sorting the extracted named entities to form a sorted list; 
 after sorting, comparing each entity name except the first to a previous entity name to determine if the two entity names are duplicates; 
 when both entity names are duplicates, determining that both named entities refer to the same entity if there is a third named entity to which both named entities were associated by the network inference module; and 
 when both named entities refer to the same entity, merging both named entities in the sorted list to form a single named entity. 
   
     
     
         12 . A computer program product according to  claim 11 , further comprising program code for computing a risk factor for the entity of interest based on the named entities and the associations between the named entities.