METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR EVALUATING SEMANTIC PROXIMITY
First Claim
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1. A system for evaluating a semantic proximity between a question consisting of a string of natural language text presented in a candidate free-form text request received from a user, and a reference free-form text entry consisting of a string of natural language text, comprising:
- a data store;
a plurality of reference free-form text entries residing in the data store, each reference free-form text entry in the form of a question expressed as a string of natural language text associated with an answer to the question;
a compiler module, wherein one or more of the reference free-form text entries are received by the compiler module and compiled to form one or more reference patterns corresponding to the reference free-form text entries;
a user interface, wherein a candidate free-form text entry is received in the user interface;
a transformer module, wherein candidate free-form text entries are transformed into candidate rephrased objects; and
a matcher module, wherein the candidate rephrased objects are compared to the output reference patterns and a semantic proximity between the candidate rephrased objects and the reference patterns is calculated and output.
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Abstract
Methods and apparatus to evaluate the semantic proximity between reference free-form text entry and a candidate free-form text request.
28 Citations
18 Claims
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1. A system for evaluating a semantic proximity between a question consisting of a string of natural language text presented in a candidate free-form text request received from a user, and a reference free-form text entry consisting of a string of natural language text, comprising:
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a data store; a plurality of reference free-form text entries residing in the data store, each reference free-form text entry in the form of a question expressed as a string of natural language text associated with an answer to the question; a compiler module, wherein one or more of the reference free-form text entries are received by the compiler module and compiled to form one or more reference patterns corresponding to the reference free-form text entries; a user interface, wherein a candidate free-form text entry is received in the user interface; a transformer module, wherein candidate free-form text entries are transformed into candidate rephrased objects; and a matcher module, wherein the candidate rephrased objects are compared to the output reference patterns and a semantic proximity between the candidate rephrased objects and the reference patterns is calculated and output. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A system for evaluating a semantic proximity between a question consisting of a string of natural language text presented in a candidate free-form text request received from a user, and a reference free-form text entry consisting of a string of natural language text, comprising:
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means for providing a plurality of reference free-form text entries in a data store, each entry in the form of a question expressed as a string of natural language text associated with an answer to the question; means for receiving a candidate free-form text request from a user work station in the form of a query expressed as a string of natural language text; means for processing the string of natural language text expressed in each reference free-form text entry into a plurality of reference rephrased objects, each reference rephrased object containing a variation of the string of natural language text expressed in the reference free-form text entry and an expression of the semantic proximity between the variation of the string of natural language text contained in the reference rephrased object and the string of natural language text expressed in the reference free-form text entry; means for processing the string of natural language text expressed in the candidate free-form text request into a plurality of user rephrased objects, each user rephrased object containing a variation of the string of natural language text expressed in the candidate free-form text request and an expression of the semantic proximity between the variation of the string of natural language text contained in the user rephrased object and the string of natural language text expressed in the candidate free-form text request; means for matching at least one of the reference rephrased objects derived from the processing of the reference free-form text entry with at least one user rephrased objects derived from the processing of the candidate free-form text request; and means for calculating a combined semantic proximity for each matching reference rephrased object and user rephrased object. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A computer readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions for evaluating a semantic proximity between a question consisting of a string of natural language text presented in a candidate free-form text request received from a user, and a reference free-form text entry consisting of a string of natural language text, comprising:
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providing a plurality of reference free-form text entries in a data store, each entry in the form of a question expressed as a string of natural language text associated with an answer to the question; receiving a candidate free-form text request from a user work station in the form of a query expressed as a string of natural language text; processing the string of natural language text expressed in each reference free-form text entry into a plurality of reference rephrased objects, each reference rephrased object containing a variation of the string of natural language text expressed in the reference free-form text entry and an expression of the semantic proximity between the variation of the string of natural language text contained in the reference rephrased object and the string of natural language text expressed in the reference free-form text entry; processing the string of natural language text expressed in the candidate free-form text request into a plurality of user rephrased objects, each user rephrased object containing a variation of the string of natural language text expressed in the candidate free-form text request and an expression of the semantic proximity between the variation of the string of natural language text contained in the user rephrased object and the string of natural language text expressed in the candidate free-form text request; matching at least one of the reference rephrased objects derived from the processing of the reference free-form text entry with at least one user rephrased objects derived from the processing of the candidate free-form text request; and calculating a combined semantic proximity for each matching reference rephrased object and user rephrased object. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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Specification