Method and apparatus for matching customer symptoms with a database of content solutions

• US 20040068497A1
• Filed: 10/02/2002
• Published: 04/08/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 10/02/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Leclerc, Paul E., deMent, William S., Rishel, Kari Compton
• Granted Patent: US 7,133,866 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/5
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3338 Query expansion
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99934 Query formulation, input preparation, or translation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99935 Query augmenting and refining, e.g. inexact access

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.

Claims

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.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein said searching step further comprises:

comparing in said synonym database said at least one symptom-based search term to a corresponding one of said solution-based synonyms, said one of said solution-based synonyms from among a group of identified symptom attributes within said metadata.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising the step of removing stop words from said symptom-based search query.

4. The method as recited in claim 3, wherein said removing stop words step comprises the steps of:

parsing each word of said symptom-based search query into individual search words; and

for each of said individual search words;

comparing said individual search words against a stop word database; and

deleting said individual search words from said symptom-based search query that appear in said stop word database.

5. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein said solution-based document database is a customer service database.

6. A method of searching a document database, comprising:

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.

7. The method as recited in claim 6, wherein said searching for a match step further comprises:

comparing in said synonym database said at least one symptom-based search term for a corresponding one of said solution-based synonyms, said one of said solution-based synonyms from among a group of identified symptom attributes within said metadata.

8. The method as recited in claim 7, wherein said searching said solution-based document database step further comprised favorably weighting matches of said solution-based documents that are identified using said solution-based search query.

9. The method as recited in claim 6, further comprising the step of removing stop words from said symptom-based search query.

10. The method as recited in claim 9, wherein said removing stop words step comprises the steps of:

parsing each word of said symptom-based search query into individual search words; and

for each of said individual search words;

comparing said individual search words against a stop word database; and

deleting said individual search words from said symptom-based search query that appear in said stop word database.

11. The method as recited in claim 6, wherein said solution-based document database is a customer service database.

12. A method of accessing a solution-based database having solution-based documents therein, comprising the steps of:

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.

13. The method as recited in claim 12 wherein said correspondingly associating step comprises the steps of:

defining a group of symptom attributes which identifies symptoms that may be addressed by said solution-based document database;

identifying at least one symptom attribute for each of said solution-based documents in said solution-based database document; and

associating said at least one symptom attribute with a corresponding one of said at least one solution-based document.

14. The method as recited in claim 12, further comprising the step of removing stop words from said symptom-based search query.

15. The method as recited in claim 14, wherein said removing stop words step comprises the steps of:

parsing each word of said symptom-based search query into individual search words; and

for each of said individual search words;

comparing said individual search words against a stop word database; and

deleting said individual search words from said symptom-based search query that appear in said stop word database.

16. A document searching system, comprising:

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.

17. The document searching system, as recited in claim 16, wherein said metadata of said solution-based documents of said solution-based document database includes symptom-based attributes.

18. The document searching system, as recited in claim 16, wherein said solution-based document database is a customer service database.

19. The document searching system, as recited in claim 16, wherein said search query preprocessing system includes a synonym database for correlating at least one term of said symptom-based search query to at least one term of said solution-based search query.

20. The document searching system, as recited in claim 16, wherein said search query preprocessing system includes a stop words database for comparing at least one term of said symptom-based search query with said stop words database.