METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR SEARCHING OF CONTENT USING SEMANTIC SYNTHESIS

• US 20110314006A1
• Filed: 06/16/2011
• Published: 12/22/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/01/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Primal Fusion Inc.
• Original Assignee: Primal Fusion Inc.
• Inventors: Sweeney, Peter J., Good, Robert Charles
• Granted Patent: US 9,361,365 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/723
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3334 Selection or weighting of terms from queries, including natural language queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/367 Ontology
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/30 Semantic analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement

Abstract

A method of semantic searching. The method may include receiving a first search query, obtaining a disambiguation term for semantically disambiguating the first search query, and creating, with a processor, a second search query based at least in part on the first search query and the disambiguation term. The method may also include at least one of outputting search results obtained from a search conducted based at least in part on the second search query and sending the second search query to a search service for outputting search results.

Claims

1. A method of semantic searching, the method comprising:

receiving a first search query;

obtaining a disambiguation term for semantically disambiguating the first search query;

creating, with a processor, a second search query based at least in part on the first search query and the disambiguation term; and

at least one of outputting search results obtained from a search conducted based at least in part on the second search query and sending the second search query to a search service for outputting search results.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

ranking and/or filtering the search results.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining the disambiguation term comprises:

identifying or creating one or more semantic representations of the first search query using a semantic lexicon, wherein at least some of the one or more semantic representations capture a semantic meaning of the first search query; and

identifying a term in the one or more semantic representations which capture a semantic meaning of the first search query as the disambiguation term.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein identifying the term comprises:

presenting a plurality of terms in the one or more semantic representations to a user; and

receiving user input identifying at least one term in the plurality of terms.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein a semantic representation of the one or more semantic representations is a concept definition and the identified term is a keyword from the concept definition.

6. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

adding terms to and/or removing terms from the semantic lexicon.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising adding to the semantic lexicon terms obtained from a real-time Internet information stream.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the second search query comprises:

based on the disambiguation term, identifying a semantic representation of the first search query that captures an intended semantic meaning of the first search query;

generating or identifying a semantic network comprising a hierarchy of concepts related to the semantic representation; and

generating the second search query using at least one concept in the semantic network.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

identifying terms appearing in a body of information content with a trend score higher than a predetermined threshold; and

generating the semantic network based on the identified terms.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

annotating the search results based on the semantic network.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein outputting the search results from the search based at least in part on the second search query comprises:

sending the second search query to a search service to conduct the search; and

in response, receiving the search results from the search service.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein outputting the search results further comprises:

displaying the search results to a user.

13. A system for semantic searching, the system comprising:

a processor configured to execute a method comprising

receiving a first search query,

obtaining a disambiguation term for semantically disambiguating the first search query,

creating a second search query based at least in part on the first search query and the disambiguation term, and

at least one of outputting search results obtained from a search conducted based at least in part on the second search query and sending the second search query to a search service for outputting search results.

14. A computer readable storage medium storing processor-executable instructions that when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform a method of semantic searching, the method comprising:

receiving a first search query;

obtaining a disambiguation term for semantically disambiguating the first search query;

creating a second search query based at least in part on the first search query and the disambiguation term; and

at least one of outputting search results obtained from a search conducted based at least in part on the second search query and sending the second search query to a search service for outputting search results.

15-30. -30. (canceled)

31. A method comprising:

receiving a first search query;

synthesizing, with a processor, a semantic representation of the first search query;

obtaining search results based on a search conducted based at least in part on the first search query; and

ranking or annotating the search results based at least in part on terms contained both in the search results and the semantic representation.

32. A system comprising:

a processor configured to execute a method comprising

receiving a first search query,

synthesizing a semantic representation of the first search query,

obtaining search results based on a search conducted based at least in part on the first search query, and

ranking or annotating the search results based at least in part on terms contained both in the search results and the semantic representation.

33. A computer-readable storage medium storing processor-executable instructions that when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform a method comprising:

receiving a first search query;

synthesizing a semantic representation of the first search query;

obtaining search results based on a search conducted based at least in part on the first search query; and

ranking or annotating the search results based at least in part on terms contained both in the search results and the semantic representation.