Apparatus and methods for retrieving information

• US 5,655,116 A
• Filed: 02/28/1994
• Issued: 08/05/1997
• Est. Priority Date: 02/28/1994
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Nokia of America Corporation (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Lucent Technologies, Inc. (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Srivastava, Divesh, Kirk, Thomas, Levy, Alon Yitzchak
• Primary Examiner(s): Amsbury, Wayne
• Assistant Examiner(s): LEWIS, CHERYL RENEA
• Application Number:
  US08/203,082
• Time in Patent Office: 1,254 Days
• Field of Search: 395/600, 395/161, 395/575, 395/100
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24524 Access plan code generation and invalidation; Reuse of access plans
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2471 Distributed queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/252 between a Database Management System and a front-end application
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing

Abstract

A query translator translates a query between a graphical user interface and a knowledge representation system. The knowledge representation system reformulates the query and generates an access plan to access data requested by the query. The access plan utilizes several different protocols to access the query information located in dissimilar databases distributed throughout a network. The knowledge representation system generates the access plan by first processing the query through a world view which defines the information in conceptual terms that a human being would understand and then processes the query through a system/network view which redefines the query into network and database access information so that the data requested by the query can be located. Placing the world view and the system network view in the knowledge representation system enables real-time intelligence to be used in the search process by providing a feedback loop between the searched databases and the knowledge representation system.

Claims

1. Information retrieval apparatus for retrieving information from a plurality of information sources, each information source being accessible by at least one of a plurality of information access protocols, the apparatus comprising:

a knowledge base responsive to a conceptual query on a knowledge representation of a domain of information, the knowledge representation including at least

a world view including a first set of concepts employed in the conceptual query and

a system view including a second set of concepts employed in accessing the plurality of information sources,

the knowledge base responding to the query by using the world view and the system view to produce an information access description describing how to access information required for the query in the plurality of information sources; and

means responsive to the information access description for employing the protocols to obtain information required to respond to the query from at least one information source in the plurality thereof and providing the obtained information to the knowledge base.

2. The apparatus set forth in claim 1 wherein:

the knowledge base further includes

information source descriptions including a third set of concepts which describe the information sources; and

the knowledge base further responds to the query by additionally using the information source descriptions to produce the information access description.

3. The apparatus set forth in claim 2 wherein:

the information source descriptions describe the information sources in terms of concepts from the first set thereof and the second set thereof.

4. The apparatus set forth in claim 3 wherein:

the information source descriptions further include descriptions of n-ary relations.

5. The apparatus set forth in claim 4 wherein:

the information source descriptions further include a constraint.

6. The apparatus set forth in claim 3 wherein:

the information source descriptions further include a constraint.

7. The apparatus set forth in claim 6 wherein:

the constraint is a subsumption constraint, wherein a variable is constrained to be subsumed in a concept.

8. The apparatus set forth in claim 7 wherein:

there is a plurality of the constraints and the plurality of constraints includes an order constraint.

9. The apparatus set forth in claim 8 wherein:

the knowledge base uses the information descriptions to produce the information access description such that the information access description describes a minimal relevant set of the information sources required for the query.

10. The apparatus set forth in claim 8 wherein:

the constraints are pairwise mutually exclusive; and

the knowledge base uses the information descriptions to produce the information access description such that the information access description describes a minimal relevant set of the information sources required for the query which includes no redundancy.

11. The apparatus set forth in claim 2 wherein:

the means responsive to the information access description includes means responsive to the obtained information and to concepts in the knowledge base for replanning how further information is to be obtained.

12. The apparatus set forth in claim 2 further comprising:

a graphical user interface for representing the world view concepts as a directed graph.

13. The apparatus set forth in claim 12 wherein:

the graphical user interface includes interactive means for altering the world view by editing the directed graph.

14. Information retrieval apparatus for retrieving information from a plurality of information sources, each information source being accessible by at least one of a plurality of information access protocols, the apparatus comprising

a knowledge base responsive to a conceptual query on a knowledge representation of a domain of information, the knowledge representation including at least

a world view including a first set of concepts employed in the conceptual query and

information source descriptions including a second set of concepts which describe the information sources in terms of concepts belonging to the world view,

the knowledge base responding to the query by using the world view and the information source descriptions to produce an information access description describing how to access information required for the query in the plurality of information sources;

and

means responsive to the information access description for employing the protocols to obtain information required to respond to the query from at least one information source in the plurality thereof and providing the obtained information to the knowledge base,

the apparatus having the improvement comprising;

descriptions of relations in the information source descriptions.

15. The apparatus set forth in claim 14 wherein:

the information source descriptions further includes a constraint.

16. The apparatus set forth in claim 15 wherein:

the constraint is a subsumption constraint, wherein a variable is constrained to be subsumed in a concept.

17. The apparatus set forth in claim 16 wherein:

there is a plurality of the constraints and the plurality of constraints includes an order constraint.

18. The apparatus set forth in claim 17 wherein:

the knowledge base uses the information descriptions to produce the information access description such that the information access description describes a minimal relevant set of the information sources required for the query.

19. The apparatus set forth in claim 17 wherein:

the constraints are pairwise mutually exclusive; and

the knowledge base uses the information descriptions to produce the information access description such that the information access description describes a minimal relevant set of the information sources required for the query, the minimal relevant set including no redundancy.