System and method for searching on a computer using an evidence set

• US 6,385,600 B1
• Filed: 04/03/1998
• Issued: 05/07/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 04/03/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: McGuinness, Deborah L., Resnick, Lori Alperin, Beattie, Thomas W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Corrielus, Jean M.
• Application Number:
  US09/054,886
• Time in Patent Office: 1,495 Days
• Field of Search: 705/45, 705/10, 705/54, 706/45, 706/60, 707/3, 707/103, 707/501, 707/4, 707/5, 707/104, 707/102, 707/10, 700/17, 700/83, 709/203, 709/218, 709/219, 709/227, 709/242, 345/356
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/022 Knowledge engineering; Knowledge acquisition
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99934 Query formulation, input preparation, or translation

Abstract

A system and method for searching on a computer. The method involves generating a knowledge base. The knowledge base includes information. The method further involves specifying an evidence set to include a proper subset of the information. The method also entails deriving the evidence set from the knowledge base.

Claims

1. A method for searching on a computer, comprising the steps of:

generating a knowledge base including information of a first entity and a second entity, and a description logic relationship existing between the first entity and the second entity;

specifying, prior to a document search being performed, an evidence set to include a proper subset of the information, the evidence set including a plurality of topics and subtopics, and a description logic relationship existing between topics and subtopics;

deriving, prior to a document search being performed, the evidence set from the knowledge base; and

performing a document search using said evidence set.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the knowledge base further includes a first class expression and a second class expression, a rule-based relationship existing between the first class expression and the second class expression.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the knowledge base includes a role.

4. The method of claim 3, herein the role is authorship.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the role is visibility.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the knowledge base includes a class.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the class is visibility.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the class includes metainformation.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the class is derived from description logic expressions.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the knowledge base includes a rule.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the knowledge base includes a necessary condition.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the knowledge base includes a sufficient condition.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein said specifying step includes the step of receiving a first query from a user.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein said deriving step includes the step of generating the evidence set that satisfies the first query.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein said specifying step includes the step of establishing system-specified parameters.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein said deriving step includes the step of generating the evidence set that satisfies the system-specified parameters.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the knowledge base includes a class and an object, the evidence set includes a topic and a term, said deriving step includes the step of:

identifying a first relationship between the class and the topic and a second relationship between the object and the term;

ordering the topic and the term in a hierarchical structure in the evidence set.

20. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

performing a search using the evidence set.

24. The method of claim 20, wherein said performing step includes the steps of:

receiving a second query that includes an operation in which the topic is an operand; and

identifying a document that satisfies the operation.

26. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of:

creating an extension of the evidence set, the extension having an evidence; and

identifying a document that includes the evidence.

15. The method of 13, wherein the first query includes the term description.

16. The method of 13, wherein the first query includes a operation in which an operand is a term description.

21. The method of 20, wherein said performing step includes the steps of:

receiving a second query that includes a topic of the evidence set;

identifying an evidence related to the topic; and

locating a document that includes the evidence.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the topic is selected by a user.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein selecting the first term of the evidence set by the user includes the steps of:

presenting a portion of the evidence set to the user; and

receiving the topic from the user.

25. The method of 21, wherein a hierarchical relationship exists between the evidence and the topic in the evidence set.

27. An apparatus for searching on a computer network, comprising:

a processor;

a memory that stores instructions adapted to be executed by said processor to perform the steps of;

generating a knowledge base including information of a first entity and a second entity, a description logic relationship existing between the first entity and the second entity;

specifying, prior to a document search being performed, an evidence set to include a proper subset of the information, the evidence set including a plurality of topics and subtopics, and a description logic relationship existing between topics and subtopics;

deriving, prior to a document search being performed, the evidence set from the knowledge base;

performing a document search using said evidence set; and

a port adapted to be coupled to the network, said port and said memory coupled to said processor.

28. An apparatus for searching on a computer network, comprising:

means for generating a knowledge base that includes information of a first entity and a second entity, and a description logic relationship existing between the first entity and second entity without prejudice; and

means for deriving, prior to a document search being performed, an evidence set from the knowledge base, the evidence set including a plurality of topics and subtopics, and a description logic relationship existing between topics and subtopics, and;

means for performing a document search using said evidence set.

29. A medium having stored thereon a plurality of executable instructions, the plurality of instructions comprising instructions to:

generate a knowledge base including information of a first entity and a second entity, a description logic relationship existing between the first entity and the second entity;

specify, prior to a document search being performed, an evidence set to include a proper subset of the information;

derive, prior to a document search being performed, the evidence set from the knowledge base, the evidence set including a plurality of topics and subtopics, and a description logic relationship existing between topics and subtopics; and

perform a document search using said evidence set.