TOPIC MAP BASED INDEXING AND SEARCHING APPARATUS

• US 20100153094A1
• Filed: 06/15/2009
• Published: 06/17/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/11/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Original Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Inventors: Hwang, Yi Gyu, LEE, Chung Hee, Kim, HyunKi, Lee, Chang Ki, Yoon, Yeo Chan, Heo, Jeong, Oh, Hyo-Jung, Lim, Soojong, Choi, Miran, Jang, Myung Gil
• Granted Patent: US 8,554,540 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/9
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3329 Natural language query formulation or dialogue systems

Abstract

A topic map based indexing apparatus analyzes community Q/A lists to acquire Q/A analysis information, removes redundant answers depending on the Q/A analysis information, removes insignificant answers based on the degree of reliability, ranks answer lists, and extracts the highest ranking answer as a best answer, to thereby store, in a community Q/A topic map, index information containing the community Q/A lists and the Q/A analysis information. A topic map based searching apparatus analyzes a user question to acquire question analysis information, searches similar questions from community Q/A lists belonging to a specific topic node of a pre-stored community Q/A topic map, ranks the searched similar questions depending on the question analysis information, removes redundant answers among answers to the ranked similar questions, ranks the answers, and extracts the highest ranking answer as a best answer.

Claims

1. A topic map based indexing apparatus, comprising:

a Q/A pre-processing block for normalizing community Q/A lists in a single form, correcting grammatical errors, and removing insignificant symbols;

a Q/A analysis block for analyzing the community Q/A lists to acquire Q/A analysis information; and

a Q/A storage block for storing, in a community Q/A topic map, index information containing the community Q/A lists and the Q/A analysis information by removing redundant answers depending on the Q/A analysis information, removing insignificant answers based on the degree of reliability, ranking answer lists, extracting the highest ranking answer as a best answer, and determining a topic.

2. The topic map based indexing apparatus of claim 1, wherein the Q/A pre-processing block includes:

a one unit recognizing unit for normalizing, in a single form, allomorph words or words recognizable as one unit in the community Q/A lists by referring to a unit dictionary database; and

an error pre-processing unit for correcting the grammatical errors and removing the insignificant symbols from the community Q/A lists by referring to a pre-processing rule database.

3. The topic map based indexing apparatus of claim 1, wherein the Q/A analysis block includes:

a language analysis unit for performing language analysis on the community Q/A lists by morpheme analysis, named entity recognition, and partial syntactic analysis;

a domain classification unit for determining the domains of the community Q/A lists by referring to a domain classification database;

a topic classification unit for classifying the community Q/A lists by topic by referring to a topic classification database;

a Q/A type analysis unit for analyzing the type of an expected community answer in the community Q/A lists based on the intention of a community question with reference to a Q/A type database;

a keyword extraction and extension unit for extracting keywords from the community Q/A lists depending on the language analysis results by referring to a keyword extension dictionary database, and additionally extending the range of similar words corresponding to the keywords; and

a constraint word extraction unit for extracting, from the community Q/A lists, constraint words in order to restrict a search space by referring to a constraint word extraction rule database.

4. The topic map based indexing apparatus of claim 1, wherein the Q/A storage block includes:

a redundant answer removal unit for removing redundant answers having the same meaning from the community Q/A lists to a community question to leave only one answer;

a wrong answer filtering unit for removing insignificant answers from the community Q/A lists provided from the redundant answer removal unit by referring to a filtering rule database based on the degree of reliability;

a best answer extraction unit for ranking the answers of the community Q/A lists provided from the wrong answer filtering unit, and extracting the highest ranking answer as the best answer by referring to a best answer extraction rule database;

a topic node determination unit for determining the topic appropriate for a community question depending on the classification of topics; and

an index information storage unit for generating the index information containing the community Q/A lists from which the highest ranking best answer is extracted and the Q/A analysis information, and for storing the index information in topic nodes corresponding to the determined topic for storage of the community Q/A topic map.

5. A topic map based searching apparatus, comprising:

a question pre-processing block for normalizing a user question in a single form, correcting grammatical errors and removing insignificant symbols;

a question analysis block for analyzing the user question to acquire question analysis information;

a similar question search block for limiting a search space to a specific topic node of a pre-stored community Q/A topic map depending on the question analysis information, searching similar questions from community Q/A lists belonging to the limited search space, and ranking the searched similar questions depending on the question analysis information; and

an answer extraction block for removing redundant answers among answers to the ranked similar questions, ranking the answers, and extracting the highest ranking answer as a best answer.

6. The topic map based searching apparatus of claim 5, wherein the question pre-processing block includes:

a one unit recognizing unit for normalizing, in a single form, allomorph words or words recognizable as one unit with respect to the user question by referring to a unit dictionary database; and

an error pre-processing unit for correcting the grammatical errors in the user question and removing the insignificant symbols from the user question by referring to a pre-processing rule database.

7. The topic map based searching apparatus of claim 5, wherein the question analysis block includes:

a language analysis unit for performing language analysis on the user question by morpheme analysis, named entity recognition, and partial syntactic analysis;

a domain classification unit for determining the domain of the user question by referring to a domain classification database;

a topic classification unit for classifying the user question by topic by referring to a topic classification database;

a Q/A type analysis unit for analyzing the type of a desired answer depending on the intention of the user question by referring to a Q/A type database;

a keyword extraction and extension unit for extracting keywords from the user question on the basis of the language analysis by referring to a keyword extension dictionary database, and additionally extending the range of similar words corresponding to the keywords; and

a constraint word extraction unit for extracting constraint words, which are restrictions in the search of time and location from the user question by referring to a constraint word extraction rule database.

8. The topic map based searching apparatus of claim 5, wherein the similar question search block includes:

a search space constraining unit for limiting the search space from the community Q/A lists from which an answer to the user question is to be searched to the lists at the specific topic node based on the domain classification and topic classification among the question analysis information;

a semantic-based matching unit for searching similar questions of the community Q/A lists at the specific topic node by using the keywords and similar words based on the question analysis information; and

a similar question ranking unit for detecting the community Q/A lists containing the searched similar questions and ranking the community Q/A lists based on the question analysis information.

9. The topic map based searching apparatus of claim 5, wherein the answer extraction block includes:

a redundant answer removal unit for removing redundant answers with the same meaning among answer lists to the similar questions in the ranked community Q/A lists; and

a best answer ranking unit for ranking the answers to the similar questions from which the redundant answers have been removed, and providing the highest ranking answer as the best answer.