Evaluating ontologies

• US 20110191273A1
• Filed: 02/02/2010
• Published: 08/04/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/02/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Ranganathan, Anand, Riabov, Anton V., Liu, Zhen, Rish, Irina, Grabarnik, Genady, Shwartz, Larisa
• Granted Patent: US 8,484,141 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 706/12
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/16 Combinations of two or more digital computers each having at least an arithmetic unit, a program unit and a register, e.g. for a simultaneous processing of several programs coordinating program control therefor G06F9/52; in regulating and control system G05B
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/367 Ontology
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 20/00 Machine learning
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/02 Knowledge representation; Symbolic representation

Abstract

A method for providing an evaluation/verification of the correctness of an ontology is described. The method includes loading a first ontology associated with a first rule set. an extended ontology and an extended rule set are generated based at least in part on the first ontology and the first rule set. The extended rule set is applied to the extended ontology. The method also includes determining (e.g., by a data processor) a correctness of the extended ontology. Results are generated which include the correctness. Apparatus and computer readable media are also described.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

loading a first ontology associated with a first rule set;

generating an extended ontology and an extended rule set based at least in part on the first ontology and the first rule set;

applying the extended rule set to the extended ontology;

determining, by a data processor, a correctness of the extended ontology; and

generating results comprising the correctness.

2. The method of claim 1, where applying the extended rule set is performed using an ontology web language reasoner.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising loading namespace location mapping information.

4. The method of claim 1, where the first ontology is a combined ontology and loading the combined ontology further comprises loading at least two ontologies.

5. The method of claim 4, where loading the at least two ontologies comprises ensuring elements of the at least two ontologies are not duplicated.

6. The method of claim 1, where the first rule set is configured in accordance with a sematic web rule language.

7. The method of claim 1, where the results comprise an indication of at least one of:

that stream contents are not variables;

that cardinality constraints are met; and

that all property values are in specified ranges.

8. The method of claim 1, where loading the first ontology comprises:

accessing a central server; and

downloading the first ontology from the central server.

9. An apparatus comprising:

a microprocessor coupled to a memory, wherein the microprocessor is configured to;

load a first ontology associated with a first rule set;

generate an extended ontology and an extended rule set based at least in part on the first ontology and the first rule set;

apply the extended rule set to the extended ontology;

determine a correctness of the extended ontology; and

generating results comprising the correctness.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the microprocessor is further configured to load namespace location mapping information.

11. The apparatus of claim 9, where the first ontology is a combined ontology and loading the combined ontology further comprises loading at least two ontologies.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, where loading the at least two ontologies comprises ensuring elements of the at least two ontologies are not duplicated.

13. The apparatus of claim 9, where the first rule set is configured in accordance with a sematic web rule language.

14. The apparatus of claim 9, where the results comprise an indication of at least one of:

that stream contents are not variables;

that cardinality constraints are met; and

that all property values are in specified ranges.

15. The apparatus of claim 9, where loading the first ontology comprises:

accessing a central server; and

downloading the first ontology from the central server.

16. A computer readable medium tangibly encoded with a computer program executable by a processor to perform actions comprising:

loading a first ontology associated with a first rule set;

generating an extended ontology and an extended rule set based at least in part on the first ontology and the first rule set;

applying the extended rule set to the extended ontology;

determining a correctness of the extended ontology; and

generating results comprising the correctness.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 16, where the actions further comprise loading namespace location mapping information.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 16, where the first ontology is a combined ontology and loading the combined ontology further comprises loading at least two ontologies.

19. The computer readable medium of claim 18, where loading the at least two ontologies comprises ensuring elements of the at least two ontologies are not duplicated.

20. The computer readable medium of claim 16, where the first rule set is configured in accordance with a sematic web rule language.