Intelligent information program generation and retrieval system

• US 6,101,488 A
• Filed: 03/04/1997
• Issued: 08/08/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 09/04/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Original Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Inventors: Miyahara, Yutaka, Oketani, Keiichi, Hayashi, Yoshitaka, Matsumoto, Shunji
• Primary Examiner(s): Stamber, Eric W.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Khatri, Anil
• Application Number:
  US08/811,541
• Time in Patent Office: 1,253 Days
• Field of Search: 706/51, 706/45, 706/46, 706/60, 706/47, 706/48, 706/49, 395/703, 395/710, 707/100, 345/326
• US Class Current: 706/45
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/954 Navigation, e.g. using categorised browsing

Abstract

An intelligent information retrieval program generation system can easily generate an intelligent information retrieval program that is applicable to a wide-area information network such as the Internet. When questions to be used as criteria for determining conclusions, answer alternatives to the questions, and information of conclusions are inputted, a table defining unit defines a conclusion determining table which comprises answer alternatives to each of the questions and conclusions. A knowledge establishing unit displays the conclusion determining table on a display screen, receives inputted answer conditions for the conclusions to be selected, and establishes the answer conditions in the conclusion determining table. A retrieval program generator generates an intelligent information retrieval program for decoding the conclusion determining table in which the knowledge has been established, displaying questions, receiving answers to the questions, and determining conclusions depending on the answers. The retrieval program generator further generates a document containing the intelligent information retrieval program by incorporating the generated intelligent information retrieval program into a document description language in the form of a hypertext.

Claims

1. An apparatus for generating a program providing an intelligent information retrieval function, said apparatus comprising:

means for defining a table comprising data indicating questions to be answered by a user, answer alternatives for the questions, and conclusion information to be correlated to the answer alternatives;

means for displaying the table and establishing answer conditions in the table responsive to inputs for the answer alternatives, the answer conditions correlating the conclusion information to the answer alternatives; and

means for generating the program based on the table and incorporating the program into a document, whereby the program presents the questions to a user of the document, receives answers input by the document user as responses to the questions, and displays conclusions responsive to the received answers based on the answer conditions.

2. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said table defining means comprises means for indicating, as an item of the conclusion information, an address of a document incorporating another intelligent information retrieval program generated based on another table comprising data indicating a question, answer alternatives for the question, and conclusion information for the answer alternatives of the question.

3. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the document is a hypertext document.

4. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said retrieval program generating means comprises means for generating the program in accordance with a predetermined script language.

5. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said retrieval program generating means comprises means for generating the program as software parts executable by a predetermined interpreter.

6. An intelligent retrieval system for retrieving intelligent information on an interactive basis, said system comprising:

a document storage storing a document incorporating an intelligent information retrieval program the program comprising instructions for presenting questions to a user of the document, receiving answers input by the document user as responses to the questions on an interactive basis, and displaying conclusions in response to the answers; and

a structured document browser for executing the intelligent information retrieval program responsive to a request from a user to use the document, whereby the user can browse the document.

7. An intelligent information retrieval system according to claim 6, wherein said structured document browser comprises a World Wide Web browser.

8. A method for generating a program for providing an intelligent information retrieval function, comprising the steps of:

defining a table comprising data indicating questions to be answered by a user, answer alternatives for the questions, and conclusion information to be correlated to the answer alternatives; and

generating an intelligent information retrieval program based on the table and incorporating the program into a document, whereby the program presents the questions to a user of the document, receives answers input by the document user as responses to the questions. and displays conclusions responsive to the received answers based on knowledge established in the table, the knowledge correlating the conclusion information to the answer alternatives.

9. An apparatus for generating a program providing an intelligent information retrieval function, said apparatus comprising:

a table defining unit defining a table comprising data indicating questions to be answered by a user, answer alternatives for the questions, and conclusion information to be correlated to the answer alternatives;

a knowledge establishing unit displaying the table and establishing answer conditions in the table responsive to inputs for the answer alternatives, the answer conditions correlating the conclusion information to the answer alternatives; and

a retrieval program generating unit generating an intelligent information retrieval program based on the table and incorporating the program into a document, whereby the program presents the questions to a user of the document, receives answers input by the document user as responses to the questions, and displays conclusions responsive to the received answers based on the answer conditions.

10. An information retrieval system, comprising:

a program generator to generate a structured document to be used by a user at a client terminal, the structured document including a retrieval program for presenting questions to the user, receiving answers input by the user responsive to the presented questions, and selecting conclusion information based on the received answers; and

a server to deliver the structured document to the client terminal, to receive the selected conclusion information from the client terminal, and to deliver to the client terminal further information retrieved from a database based on the selected conclusion information.

11. An apparatus for generating a structured document for intelligent information retrieval, said apparatus comprising:

a code generator to generate an information retrieval program based on conclusion-determining information including questions to be presented to a user, answer alternatives selectable by the user responsive to the questions, and conclusion information corresponding to each answer alternative; and

means for incorporating the information retrieval program into a structured document to be used by the user at a user terminal, use of the structured document invoking the information retrieval program to present one or more of the questions to user, receive an answer from the user responsive to each of the one or more questions, and select conclusion information based on each received answer.

12. An apparatus according to claim 11, wherein said code generator includes means to incorporate into the information retrieval program a procedure for requesting document information from a server in communication with the user terminal when the selected conclusion information includes an address for the document information.

13. An apparatus according to claim 11, wherein said code generator includes means to incorporate into the information retrieval program a procedure for presenting a further one or more questions to the user when the selected conclusion information indicates further conclusion-determining information including the further one or more questions, further answer alternatives for the further one or more questions, and further conclusion information corresponding to each of the further answer alternatives.