Information retrieval using conjunctive search and link discovery

• US 20060242130A1
• Filed: 04/04/2006
• Published: 10/26/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 04/23/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Clenova LLC
• Original Assignee: Clenova LLC
• Inventors: Jalalian, Faramarz, Farmad, Alireza, Sadri, Reza, Arabshahi, Payman, Adibi, Jafar
• Application Number:
  US11/398,199
• Publication Number:
  US 20060242130A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results

Abstract

An embodiment of the present invention is a technique for information retrieval. Information is searched using a set of search inputs representing a query from a user to produce a plurality of search results. The search results are analyzed using at least one of a conjunctive search, a link discovery, and a knowledge base to generate enhanced search results.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

searching information using a set of search inputs representing a query from a user to produce a plurality of search results; and

analyzing the search results using at least one of a conjunctive search, a link discovery, and a knowledge base to generate enhanced search results.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein searching the information comprises:

receiving the query from the user;

pre-processing the query; and

matching the pre-processed query with an information base; and

obtaining the search results from the information base that match with the pre-processed query.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein pre-processing the query comprises:

pre-processing the query using at least one of a cache server and the knowledge base.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein pre-processing the query comprises:

performing at least one of a lexical operation, a logical operation, a semantic operation, a filtering operation, a mathematical operation, and a null operation on the search inputs.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein analyzing the search results comprises:

post processing the search results to produce search attributes;

detecting relationships among the search attributes; and

extracting the enhanced search results from the detected relationships.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein post processing the search results comprises:

filtering the search results, the filtered search results corresponding to the search attributes.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein filtering the search results comprises:

filtering out the search results using at least one of a dictionary, the knowledge base, a rule-based system, and an inference engine.

8. The method of claim 5 wherein detecting relationships comprises:

connecting the search attributes based on a join metric to produce items; and

performing a link discovery on the items to obtain the relationships.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein connecting the search attributes comprises:

connecting the search attributes using at least one of a matching metric, a spatial metric, a temporal metric, a semantic metric, and a contextual metric.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein performing the link discovery comprises:

ranking the items.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein ranking the items comprises:

producing an initial ranking of the items using a first ranking metric;

generating a correlation result from the initial ranking; and

generating a final ranking of the items based on the correlation result using a second ranking metric.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein one of the first and second ranking metrics includes at least one of information content, a frequency of occurrences of the items, and a commonality metric between the items and the search.

13. The method of claim 5 wherein search attributes include at least one of keywords, metadata, tags, descriptors, and scores.

14. The method of claim 10 wherein extracting the enhanced results comprises:

obtaining the ranked items.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein extracting the enhanced results further comprises:

generating an inference from the ranked items.

16. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

refining searching using the enhanced search results.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein refining searching comprises:

updating at least one of the query and the knowledge base.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein refining searching further comprises:

presenting the enhanced search results to the user; and

receiving feedback from the user.

19. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

constructing the knowledge base using at least one of a Bayesian network, an expert system, and a rule-based system.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein constructing the knowledge base comprises:

tailoring the knowledge base according to at least one of user profile, user history, and user input.

21. The method of claim 1 wherein the information is one of a textual document, an image, a video file, an audio file, and a media file.

22. The method of claim 2 wherein the information base is one of a database, a set of databases, and a Web accessible source.

30. The article of manufacture of claim 21 wherein the data causing the machine to perform analyzing comprises data that, when accessed by a machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising:

post processing the search results to produce search attributes;

detecting relationships among the search attributes; and

extracting the enhanced search results from the detected relationships.

23. An information retrieval system comprising:

a search engine to search information using a set of search inputs representing a query from a user to produce a plurality of search results; and

an analyzer coupled to the search engine to analyze the search results using at least one of a conjunctive search, a link discovery, and a knowledge base to generate enhanced search results.

24. The system of claim 23 wherein the search engine comprises:

a user interface to receive the query from the user;

a pre-processor coupled to the user interface to pre-process the query; and

a matcher coupled to the pre-processor to match the pre-processed query with an information base, the matcher obtaining the search results from the information base that match with the pre-processed query.

25. The system of claim 23 wherein the analyzer comprises:

a post processor to post process the search results to produce search attributes;

a relationship detector coupled to the post processor to detect relationships among the search attributes; and

an extractor coupled to the relationship detector to extract the enhanced search results from the detected relationships.

26. The system of claim 25 wherein the relationship detector comprises:

an attribute connector to connect the search attributes based on a join metric to produce items; and

a link discovery processor coupled to the attribute connector to perform a link discovery on the items to obtain the relationships.

27. The system of claim 23 further comprising:

a search refiner coupled to the analyzer to refine searching using the enhanced search results.

28. An article of manufacture comprising:

a machine-accessible medium including data that, when accessed by a machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising;

searching information using a set of search inputs representing a query from a user to produce a plurality of search results; and

analyzing the search results using at least one of a conjunctive search, a link discovery, and a knowledge base to generate enhanced search results.

29. The article of manufacture of claim 28 wherein the data causing the machine to perform searching information comprises data that, when accessed by a machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising one of:

receiving the query from the user;

pre-processing the query; and

matching the pre-processed query with an information base; and

obtaining the search results from the information base that match with the pre-processed query.