Table querying

• US 20060173834A1
• Filed: 01/28/2005
• Published: 08/03/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 01/28/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Brill, Eric D., Richardson, Matthew R.
• Granted Patent: US 7,792,829 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/248 Presentation of query results

Abstract

The subject invention relates to a system and/or methodology that facilitate converting structured data (e.g., tabular information) into natural language, thus making it available to question answering systems and search engines. More specifically, the system and method employ the vast quantities of natural language on the particular storage system, database, network, or server that a user wishes to search. For example, the system can utilize natural-language based information located on the Web to assist in the task of converting structured data into natural language. In particular, the system can find at least one sentence or sentence fragment on the Web that refers to at least one tuple (e.g., row) in a given table. Following, those sentences can be generalized across all or substantially all tuples in the table. The resulting body of text can be used by the question answering system to answer user queries.

Claims

1. A system that facilitates responding to queries comprising:

a component that receives a set of structured data; and

a conversion component that converts the structured data to a searchable format.

2. The system of claim 1, the structured data is non-sentence based.

3. The system of claim 2, the searchable format is at least one of natural language and grammar-based language.

4. The system of claim 2, the searchable format is at least one of a non-grammatical language and template.

5. The system of claim 2, the structured data is in at least one of the following:

tabular form, chart form, list form, audio form, and image form.

6. The system of claim 2, further comprising an association component that associates existing searchable language with a subset of the structured data to facilitate conversion thereof.

7. The system of claim 6, the conversion component locates the existing searchable language via a search.

8. The system of claim 7, the search is performed via at least one of the internet and intranet.

9. The system of claim 1, further comprising an Al component that determines a most suitable conversion from a plurality of conversions based on at least one of a user query, user-specific parameters, and group-specific parameters.

10. The system of claim 6, wherein the conversion component extracts at least one of relevant sentences and sentence fragments from one or more web pages.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein one or more portions of the web page that involve structured data is extracted.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the conversion component constructs a collection of sentences or of grammar describing the structured data, whereby the collection is searchable.

13. A method that facilitates responding to user queries comprising:

receiving a set of structured data from at least one information store, wherein the structured data is non-sentence based; and

converting the structured data into a searchable format.

14. The method of claim 13, converting the structured data into a searchable format comprises:

extracting at least one of sentences and sentence fragments that are relevant to the structured data from the at least one information store;

associating at least one of the sentences and sentence fragments extracted from the store with at least a subset of the structured data to facilitate ascertaining relations between extracted sentences and the subset of the structured data; and

generalizing the relations for application to any remaining portion of the set of structured data.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising locating existing searchable language via a search engine.

16. The method of claim 13, converting the structured data into a searchable format comprises:

constructing at least a first collection of at least one of sentences or of grammatical phrases describing the structured data; and

searching the first collection to retrieve information from the structured data to facilitate processing and responding to a search query.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising constructing at least a second collection of at least one of:

non-grammatical formatted language and templates; and

searching the second collection to retrieve information from the structured data to facilitate responding to the search query.

18. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

initially receiving a user search query; and

looking for structured data in the at least one information store based at least in part on the user'"'"'s search query.

19. The method of claim 13, the information store comprises at least one of the following:

the Web, a database, a network, a server, and a client machine.

20. A system that facilitates responding to user queries comprising:

means for receiving a set of structured data from at least one information store, wherein the structured data is non-sentence based;

means for converting the structured data into a searchable language.

means for extracting at least one of sentences and sentence fragments that are relevant to the structured data from the at least one information store;

means for associating at least one of the sentences and sentence fragments extracted from the store with at least a subset of the structured data to facilitate ascertaining relations between extracted sentences and the subset of the structured data; and

means for generalizing the relations for application to any remaining portion of the set of structured data.