QUESTION ANSWERING DEVICE, QUESTION ANSWERING METHOD, AND QUESTION ANSWERING PROGRAM

• US 20090012926A1
• Filed: 02/20/2007
• Published: 01/08/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/01/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NEC Corporation
• Original Assignee: NEC Corporation
• Inventors: Ishikawa, Kai, Akamine, Susumu
• Granted Patent: US 8,983,977 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 706/47
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/243 Natural language query formulation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3325 Reformulation based on results of preceding query
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3329 Natural language query formulation or dialogue systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3334 Selection or weighting of terms from queries, including natural language queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3335 Syntactic pre-processing, e.g. stopword elimination, stemming

Abstract

A question-answering device, a question-answering method, and a question-answering program that can obtain an answer to an inputted query with high probability are described. A score calculation element 305 determines a matching degree between the group of the style and the topic of an inputted query and the group of the style and the topic of the query of question-answer pairs. A search result presentation element 306 narrows the question-answer pairs on the basis of the matching degree.

Claims

1-9. -9. (canceled)

10. A question-answering device comprising:

a question-answer pair storing unit that stores a plurality of question-answer pairs composed of reference queries and their answers;

an analysis result storing unit that stores groups of a style representing the type of a question of each reference query and a topic representing an object of a question of each reference query;

an input unit that receives a query;

an analysis pattern storing unit that stores a rule used to decide the groups of the style and the topic of the query received in the input unit;

an analysis unit that decides the groups of the style and the topic of the query received in the input unit on the basis of the rule stored in the analysis pattern storing unit;

a determination unit that determines a matching degree between each group of the style and the topic of the reference query stored in the analysis result storing unit and each group of the style and the topic of the query decided by the analysis unit; and

a narrowing unit that narrows search results of the query received in the input unit from the plurality of question-answer pairs stored in the question-answer pair storing unit into only question-answer pairs, of which the question contents match the query received in the input unit, on the basis of the matching degree determined by the determination unit.

11. The question-answering device according to claim 10, further comprising:

a retrieval unit that extracts a keyword from the query received in the input unit, and performs a keyword search on the plurality of question-answer pairs stored in the question-answer pair storing unit as search objects by using the extracted keyword,

wherein the determination unit reads out the groups of the style and the topic of each reference query, which is included in the search results of the retrieval unit, from the analysis result storing unit, and determines a matching degree between each group of the style and the topic of the read-out reference query and the group of the style and the topic of the query decided in the analysis unit.

12. The question-answering device according to claim 10, further comprising:

a question-content matching degree table storing unit that stores a question-content matching degree table showing the matching degree between two groups of the styles and the topics,

wherein the determination unit determines a matching degree between each group of the style and the topic of the reference query and the group of the style and the topic of the query determined in the analysis unit, by using the question-content matching degree table.

13. The question-answering device according to claim 10,

wherein the determination unit calculates a score that represents a matching degree between a keyword of the query received in the input unit and a keyword of each of the question-answer pairs, and

the narrowing unit narrows the search results of the query received by the input unit from the plurality of question-answer pairs stored in the question-answer pair storing unit, on the basis of the score calculated in the determination unit and the matching degree determined in the determination unit.

14. A question-answering device comprising:

a question-answer pair storing means that stores a plurality of question-answer pairs composed of reference queries and their answers;

an analysis result storing means that stores groups of a style representing the type of a question of each reference query and a topic representing an object of a question of each reference query;

an input means that receives a query;

an analysis pattern storing means that stores a rule used to decide the groups of the style and the topic of the query received in the input means;

an analysis means that decides the groups of the style and the topic of the query received in the input means on the basis of the rule stored in the analysis pattern storing means;

a determination means that determines a matching degree between each group of the style and the topic of the reference query stored in the analysis result storing means and each group of the style and the topic of the query decided by the analysis means; and

a narrowing means that narrows search results of the query received in the input means from the plurality of question-answer pairs stored in the question-answer pair storing means into only question-answer pairs, of which the question contents match the query received in the input means, on the basis of the matching degree determined by the determination means.

15. A question-answering method performed by a question-answering device comprising:

an input step of receiving a query;

an analysis step of deciding the groups of the style and the topic of the query on the basis of the rule stored in an analysis pattern storing unit;

a determination step of determining a matching degree between each group of the style and the topic of the reference query stored in an analysis result storing unit and the group of the style and the topic of the query; and

a narrowing step of narrowing search results of the query from a plurality of question-answer pairs stored in a question-answer pair storing unit into only question-answer pairs, of which the question contents match the query, on the basis of the matching degree,

wherein the question-answering device includes the question-answer pair storing unit that stores the plurality of question-answer pairs composed of reference queries and their answers, the analysis result storing unit that stores groups of the style representing the type of the question of each reference query and the topic representing an object of the question of each reference query, and the analysis pattern storing unit that stores a rule used to decide the groups of the style and the topic of the query.

16. The question-answering method according to claim 15, further comprising:

an extraction step of extracting a keyword from the query; and

a search step of performing a keyword search on the plurality of question-answer pairs as search objects, that is stored in the question-answer pair storing unit, by using the extracted keyword,

wherein in the determination step, the groups of the style and the topic of each reference query, which is included in the search results of the search step, are read out from the analysis result storing unit; and

a matching degree between each group of the style and the topic of the read-out reference query and the group of the style and the topic of the query is determined.

17. The question-answering method according to claim 15,

wherein the question-answering device further includes a question-content matching degree table storing unit that stores a question-content matching degree table showing the matching degree between two groups of the styles and the topics, and

in the determination step, a matching degree between each group of the style and the topic of the reference query and the group of the style and the topic of the query is determined by using the question-content matching degree table.

18. The question-answering method according to claim 15,

wherein in the determination step, a score that represents a matching degree between a keyword of the query and a keyword of each of the question-answer pairs is calculated, and

in the narrowing step, the search results of the query are narrowed from the plurality of question-answer pairs stored in the question-answer pair storing unit, on the basis of the score and the matching degree.

19. A storage medium for storing a question-answering program for performing a question-answering process in a computer, the computer being connected to a question-answer pair storing unit that stores a plurality of question-answer pairs composed of reference queries and their answers, an analysis result storing unit that stores groups of a style representing the type of a question of each reference query and a topic representing an object of the question of each reference query, and an analysis pattern storing unit that stores a rule used to decide the groups of the style and the topic of the query,

wherein the question-answering process includes:

an input process for receiving a query;

an analysis process for deciding the groups of the style and the topic of the query on the basis of the rule stored in the analysis pattern storing unit;

a determination process for determining a matching degree between each group of the style and the topic of the reference query stored in the analysis result storing unit and the group of the style and the topic of the query; and

a narrowing process for narrowing search results of the query from the plurality of question-answer unit stored in the question-answer pair storing unit into only question-answer pairs, of which the question contents match the query, on the basis of the matching degree.