PROVIDING ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS INCLUDING ASSEMBLING ANSWERS FROM MULTIPLE DOCUMENT SEGMENTS
First Claim
1. A method of generating answers to questions, comprising:
- receiving an input query;
conducting a search in a data source to identify a candidate answer to the input query;
identifying a proof of the candidate answer, said proof including a series of premises for establishing said proof;
identifying documents that include references to said premises, each of said documents including one or more references to one or more of said premises;
selecting a set of the documents that, as a set, include references to all of the premises; and
using the selected set of documents to generate a score for the candidate answer.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A method, system and computer program product for generating answers to questions. In one embodiment, the method comprises receiving an input query, identifying a plurality of candidate answers to the query; and for at least one of these candidate answers, identifying at least one proof of the answer. This proof includes a series of premises, and a multitude of documents are identified that include references to the premises. A set of these documents is selected that include references to all of the premises. This set of documents is used to generate one or more scores for the one of the candidate answers. A defined procedure is applied to the candidate answers to determine a ranking for the answers, and this includes using the one or more scores for the at least one of the candidate answers in the defined procedure to determine the ranking for this one candidate answer.
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Citations
25 Claims
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1. A method of generating answers to questions, comprising:
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receiving an input query; conducting a search in a data source to identify a candidate answer to the input query; identifying a proof of the candidate answer, said proof including a series of premises for establishing said proof; identifying documents that include references to said premises, each of said documents including one or more references to one or more of said premises; selecting a set of the documents that, as a set, include references to all of the premises; and using the selected set of documents to generate a score for the candidate answer. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
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6. A system for generating answers to questions, comprising:
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a computer device comprising at least one distinct software module, each distinct software module being embodied on a tangible computer-readable medium;
a memory; and
at least one processor coupled to the memory and operative for;receiving an input query; conducting a search in a data source to identify a candidate answer to the input query; identifying a proof of the candidate answer, said proof including a series of premises for establishing said proof; identifying documents that include references to said premises, each of said documents including one or more references to one or more of said premises; selecting a set of the documents that, as a set, include references to all of the premises; and using the selected set of documents to generate a score for the candidate answer. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. An article of manufacture comprising:
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at least one tangible computer readable medium having computer readable program code logic to generate answers to questions, the computer readable program code logic, when executing, performing the following; receiving an input query; conducting a search in a data source to identify a candidate answer to the input query; identifying a proof of the candidate answer, said proof including a series of premises for establishing said proof; identifying documents that include references to said premises, each of said documents including one or more references to one or more of said premises; selecting a set of the documents that, as a set, include references to all of the premises; and using the selected set of documents to generate a score for the candidate answer. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A method of indexing documents, comprising:
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for each of the documents, annotating spans of text in said each document that refer to entities with entity types to form entity annotations, and annotating spans of text in said each document that refer to facts with fact types to form relation annotations; for each of the annotated spans of text that refers to one of the facts, linking said one of the facts to said each annotation; and recording in an index the entities, the facts, the annotations that refer to said entities, and the annotations that refer to said facts. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. A system for retrieving documents, comprising:
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a computer device comprising at least one distinct software module, each distinct software module being embodied on a tangible computer-readable medium;
a memory; and
at least one processor coupled to the memory and operative for;searching through a given index to identify a candidate answer for an input query from a user; identifying at least one proof for the candidate answer, said proof including a series of premises; searching through the index to identify a multitude of documents that include references to the premises of said one proof; selecting a set of the documents that, as a set, include references to all of the premises; and returning the set of documents to the user. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25)
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Specification