ANSWER MANAGEMENT IN A QUESTION-ANSWERING ENVIRONMENT

• US 20160125751A1
• Filed: 12/15/2014
• Published: 05/05/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/05/2014
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Barker, Kevin S., Eggebraaten, Thomas J., Megerian, Mark G., Petri, John E., Pfeifer, Michael D.
• Application Number:
  US14/570,491
• Publication Number:
  US 20160125751A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24522 Translation of natural language queries to structured queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24575 using context
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/284 Relational databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/285 Clustering or classification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3329 Natural language query formulation or dialogue systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3332 Query translation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3334 Selection or weighting of terms from queries, including natural language queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3344 using natural language analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/367 Ontology
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/90324 using system suggestions
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/955 using information identifiers, e.g. uniform resource locators [URL]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/205 Parsing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/211 Syntactic parsing, e.g. based on context-free grammar [CFG] or unification grammars
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/284 Lexical analysis, e.g. tokenisation or collocates
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/30 Semantic analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/40 Processing or translation of natural language natural language analysis G06F40/20; semantic analysis G06F40/30
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 20/00 : Machine learning
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/022 : Knowledge engineering; Knowledge acquisition
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/046 : Forward inferencing; Production systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 7/01 : Probabilistic graphical models, e.g. probabilistic networks
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0203 : Market surveys; Market polls
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 7/00 : Electrically-operated teaching apparatus or devices working with questions and answers mechanically operated G09B3/00; computing arrangements G06F
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 7/02 : of the type wherein the student is expected to construct an answer to the question which is presented or wherein the machine gives an answer to the question presented by a student
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/20 : for electronic clinical trials or questionnaires
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/20 : for the management or administration of healthcare resources or facilities, e.g. managing hospital staff or surgery rooms
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/70 : for mining of medical data, e.g. analysing previous cases of other patients
• CPC Class Codes: G16Z 99/00 : Subject matter not provided for in other main groups of this subclass

Abstract

Managing answers in a question-answering environment is disclosed. Managing answers in the question-answering environment can include sorting, based on a set of answer categories for a subject matter, a first set of answers into a first answer category and a second set of answers into a second answer category. Managing answers in the question-answering environment can include determining, using the subject matter, a first category sequence including the first answer category and the second answer category, and establishing, based on the first category sequence, a first answer sequence established from a portion of the first set of answers from the first answer category and a portion of the second set of answers from the second answer category.

Claims

1-6. -6. (canceled)

7. A computer system for managing answers in a question-answering environment, the system comprising:

an answer management processor configured to;

sort, based on a set of answer categories for a subject matter, a first set of answers into a first answer category and a second set of answers into a second answer category;

determine, using the subject matter, a first category sequence including the first answer category and the second answer category; and

establish, based on the first category sequence, a first answer sequence established from a portion of the first set of answers from the first answer category and a portion of the second set of answers from the second answer category.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein:

the answer management processor is further configured to;

sort, based on the set of answer categories, a third set of answers into a third answer category;

determine, using the subject matter, a second category sequence including the first answer category, the second answer category, and the third answer category; and

establish, based on the second category sequence, a second answer sequence from the portion of the first set of answers from the first answer category, the portion of the second set of answers from the second answer category, and a portion of the third set of answers from the third answer category.

9. The system of claim 7, further comprising:

a question analyzer configured to;

receive, from a user, a question relating to the subject matter;

analyze, using a natural language processing technique, the question; and

wherein the answer management processor is further configured to;

determine, based on the question analyzer analyzing the question, the set of answer categories.

10. The system of claim 7, further comprising:

a question analyzer configured to;

receive, from a user, a question relating to the subject matter; and

an answer generator configured to;

identify, in response to the question analyzer receiving the question, a group of answers based on the question, the group of answers including the first set of answers and the second set of answers; and

wherein the answer management processor is further configured to;

analyze, by a natural language processing technique, the group of answers; and

determine, based on analyzing the group of answers, the set of answer categories.

11. The system of claim 7, further comprising:

a question analyzer configured to;

receive, from a user, a question; and

wherein the answer management processor is further configured to;

determine the subject matter using a natural language processing technique.

12. The system of claim 7, wherein:

the answer management processor being configured to determine, using the subject matter, the first category sequence, includes being configured to;

select, from a repository of category sequences, a group of category sequences corresponding to the subject matter, the group of category sequences including the first category sequence.

13. A computer program product for managing answers in a question-answering environment, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by a computer to cause the computer to perform a method comprising:

sorting, based on a set of answer categories for a subject matter, a first set of answers into a first answer category and a second set of answers into a second answer category;

determining, using the subject matter, a first category sequence including the first answer category and the second answer category; and

establishing, based on the first category sequence, a first answer sequence established from a portion of the first set of answers from the first answer category and a portion of the second set of answers from the second answer category.

14. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the method further comprises:

sorting, based on the set of answer categories, a third set of answers into a third answer category;

determining, using the subject matter, a second category sequence including the first answer category, the second answer category, and the third answer category;

establishing, based on the second category sequence, a second answer sequence from the portion of the first set of answers from the first answer category, the portion of the second set of answers from the second answer category, and a portion of the third set of answers from the third answer category; and

providing the second answer sequence.

15. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the method further comprises:

receiving, from a user, a question relating to the subject matter;

analyzing, by a natural language processing technique, the question; and

determining, based on analyzing the question, the set of answer categories.

16. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the method further comprises:

receiving, from a user, a question relating to the subject matter;

identifying, in response to receiving the question, a group of answers based on the question, the group of answers including the first set of answers and the second set of answers;

analyzing, by a natural language processing technique, the group of answers; and

determining, based on analyzing the group of answers, the set of answer categories.

17. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the method further comprises:

receiving, from a user, a question; and

determining the subject matter using a natural language processing technique configured to analyze the question.

18. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein:

determining, using the subject matter, the first category sequence, includes;

selecting, from a repository of category sequences, a group of category sequences corresponding to the subject matter, the group of category sequences including the first category sequence.

19-25. -25. (canceled)