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Knowledge-based information retrieval system

  • US 5,822,743 A
  • Filed: 04/08/1997
  • Issued: 10/13/1998
  • Est. Priority Date: 04/08/1997
  • Status: Expired due to Term
First Claim
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1. A method for assisting a user in solving a new problem case within a selected domain, comprising the steps of:

  • (a) providing a database comprising global domain knowledge relating to components of the selected domain, local domain knowledge, and a plurality of previously solved cases in the selected domain, each of the previously solved cases including a plurality of case attributes, said case attributes comprising case attribute names and known values associated therewith, said local domain knowledge comprising associations between the case attributes of a previously solved case;

    (b) prompting the user to select a component of the domain and to select from the case attributes a set of attributes considered to be relevant to the new problem case and to provide current values for each of the new problem case attributes;

    (c) searching the database of previously solved cases for candidate solved cases that include one or more of the new problem case attributes selected by the user and generating a list of said candidate solved cases;

    (d) matching the candidate solved cases to the new problem case by comparing the current value for each of the new problem case attributes to the known value for the same case attribute in each of the candidate solved cases;

    (e) ranking the candidate solved cases in order of relevance based upon the matching and presenting a list of ranked candidate solved cases in order of relevance based upon the ranking;

    (f) generating additional questions based upon unanswered attributes of the candidate solved cases, the unanswered attributes being those case attributes for which values have not yet been provided by the user, and based upon the local domain knowledge, thereby assisting the user to select and provide values for the unanswered attributes; and

    (g) repeating steps (b) through (f) inclusive until the user is satisfied with the list of candidate solved cases.

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