System and method for agent assisted information retrieval
First Claim
1. A method for retrieving documents, comprising:
- generating a model of a user'"'"'s information need;
evaluating leads present in the model to determine search paths;
determining the leads to pursue in response to the evaluation;
pursuing the determined leads, wherein at least one of the leads may be pursued using a different method from the other leads; and
obtaining documents as a result of the pursuit.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Online information resources are searched. The system acts an assistant to the user during the search of online resources by pursuing search paths that the user did not recognize, or was unable to pursue due to time or skill limitations. After constructing a preliminary model of the user'"'"'s information need the system identifies a number of unexplored leads and pursues them with a user-defined level of autonomy. Pursuing leads may involve the exploitation of any number of heuristics through automated advanced query construction and Web crawling methods. Documents discovered during the search are evaluated for likely utility and presented to the user. Both explicit feedback and inferences drawn from the user'"'"'s interaction with online information are used to continually refine the model of the user'"'"'s information need thereby redirecting the search system.
58 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method for retrieving documents, comprising:
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generating a model of a user'"'"'s information need;
evaluating leads present in the model to determine search paths;
determining the leads to pursue in response to the evaluation;
pursuing the determined leads, wherein at least one of the leads may be pursued using a different method from the other leads; and
obtaining documents as a result of the pursuit. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A computer-readable medium having computer executable instructions for retrieving documents, comprising:
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generating a model of a user'"'"'s information need;
evaluating leads present in the model to determine search paths;
determining the leads to pursue in response to the evaluation;
pursuing the determined leads, wherein at least one of the leads may be pursued using a different method from the other leads;
obtaining search results as a result of the pursuit, wherein the search results include documents; and
presenting the search results to the user. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A system for retrieving documents, comprising:
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a processor and a computer-readable medium;
an operating environment stored on the computer-readable medium and executing on the processor;
a communication connection device operating under the control of the operating environment;
an application operating under the control of the operating environment and operative to perform actions, including;
generating a model of a user'"'"'s information need;
evaluating leads present in the model to determine search paths;
determining the leads to pursue in response to the evaluation;
pursuing the determined leads, wherein at least one of the leads may be pursued using a different method from the other leads;
obtaining search results as a result of the pursuit, wherein the search results include documents; and
presenting the search results to the user. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification