Method and apparatus for matching customer symptoms with a database of content solutions
First Claim
1. A method of forming a solution-based search query from a symptom-based search query for searching a solution-based document database, comprising the steps of:
- identifying at least one symptom-based search term within said symptom-based search query;
searching within a synonym database for a match to said at least one symptom-based search term, said synonym database comprised of solution-based synonyms corresponding to metadata associated with solution-based documents of said solution-based document database; and
replacing said at least one symptom-based search term of said symptom-based search query with at least one solution-based synonym corresponding to said metadata of at least one solution-based document within said solution-based document database to form said solution-based search query.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method of forming a solution-based search query from a symptom-based search query for searching a solution-based document database is presented. A user query comprised of perceived symptom-based search terms is preprocessed to remove extraneous terms. The remaining search query is evaluated to identify symptom-based terminology. The symptom-based terminology is used to access a synonym database which matches the symptom-based search term with a solution-based search term. The solution-based search term is substituted into the original search term and the solution-based search query is entered into a search engine for identification of solution-based documents.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method of forming a solution-based search query from a symptom-based search query for searching a solution-based document database, comprising the steps of:
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identifying at least one symptom-based search term within said symptom-based search query;
searching within a synonym database for a match to said at least one symptom-based search term, said synonym database comprised of solution-based synonyms corresponding to metadata associated with solution-based documents of said solution-based document database; and
replacing said at least one symptom-based search term of said symptom-based search query with at least one solution-based synonym corresponding to said metadata of at least one solution-based document within said solution-based document database to form said solution-based search query. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
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6. A method of searching a document database, comprising:
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entering a symptom-based search query for searching a solution-based document database;
identifying at least one symptom-based search term within said symptom-based search query;
firstly, searching for a match to said at least one symptom-based search term within a synonym database comprised of solution-based synonyms corresponding to metadata associated with solution-based documents of said solution-based document database;
replacing said at least one symptom-based search term of said symptom-based search query with at least one solution-based synonym corresponding to said metadata of at least one solution-based document within said solution-based document database to form a solution-based search query; and
secondly, searching said solution-based document database using said solution-based search query. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A method of accessing a solution-based database having solution-based documents therein, comprising the steps of:
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correspondingly associating symptom attributes to said solution-based documents in said solution-based document database;
creating a synonym database comprised of solution-based synonyms which correlate said symptom attributes with at least one symptom-based search term;
entering a symptom-based search query for searching said solution-based document database;
identifying at least one symptom-based search term within said symptom-based search query;
searching for a match to said at least one symptom-based search term within said synonym database comprised of solution-based synonyms corresponding to metadata associated with said solution-based documents of said solution-based document database; and
replacing said at least one symptom-based search term of said symptom-based search query with at least one solution-based synonym corresponding to said metadata of at least one solution-based document within said solution-based document database to form a solution-based search query. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15)
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16. A document searching system, comprising:
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a solution-based document database including solution-based documents having metadata prepended thereto;
a search query preprocessing system adapted to formulate a solution-based search query from a symptom-based search query input by a user; and
a search engine to generate search terms from said solution-based search query and compare said search terms with both said solution-based documents and said metadata prepended thereto to formulate solution-based search results from said symptom-based query. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification