Multiple engine information retrieval and visualization system
First Claim
1. An information retrieval system for selectively retrieving documents from a document database, the system comprising:
- an input interface for accepting at least one user search query;
a plurality of search engines for retrieving documents from the document database based upon the at least one user search query, each of said search engines producing a common mathematical representation of each retrieved document;
a display; and
visualization display means for mapping respective mathematical representations of the retrieved documents onto said display, and comprising keyword display means for displaying keywords from the at least one user search query, and cluster display means for displaying retrieved documents in clusters surrounding respective user search queries.
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Abstract
An information retrieval and visualization system utilizes multiple search engines for retrieving documents from a document database based upon user input queries. Search engines include an n-gram search engine and a vector space model search engine using a neural network training algorithm. Each search engine produces a common mathematical representation of each retrieved document. The retrieved documents are then combined and ranked. Mathematical representations for each respective document is mapped onto a display. Information displayed includes a three-dimensional display of keywords from the user input query. The three-dimensional visualization capability based upon the mathematical representation of information within the information retrieval and visualization system provides users with an intuitive understanding, with relevance feedback/query refinement techniques that can be better utilized, resulting in higher retrieval accuracy (precision).
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Citations
27 Claims
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1. An information retrieval system for selectively retrieving documents from a document database, the system comprising:
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an input interface for accepting at least one user search query;
a plurality of search engines for retrieving documents from the document database based upon the at least one user search query, each of said search engines producing a common mathematical representation of each retrieved document;
a display; and
visualization display means for mapping respective mathematical representations of the retrieved documents onto said display, and comprising keyword display means for displaying keywords from the at least one user search query, and cluster display means for displaying retrieved documents in clusters surrounding respective user search queries. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. A method for selectively retrieving documents from a document database using an information retrieval system comprising a plurality of search engines, the method comprising:
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generating at least one user search query;
retrieving documents from the document database based upon the user search query, with each search engine searching the document database;
producing a common mathematical representation of each document retrieved by the respective search engines; and
mapping respective mathematical representations of the retrieved documents onto a display, the mapping comprising displaying keywords from the at least one user input query, and displaying retrieved documents in clusters surrounding respective user search queries. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27)
receiving an input for selecting a retrieved document mapped onto the display; and
displaying the text of the selected document on the display.
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21. A method according to claim 15, further comprising combining and ranking retrieved documents from all of the search engines.
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22. A method according to claim 15, further comprising providing relevance feedback means for accepting relevance feedback from a user.
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23. A method according to claim 22, wherein providing the relevance feedback means comprises selecting one or more retrieved documents as a next search query.
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24. A method according to claim 15, further comprising assigning a weighting percentage to each search engine.
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25. A method according to claim 15, wherein the at least one user search query comprises at least one document.
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26. A method according to claim 15, wherein the at least one user search query comprises at least one document cluster.
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27. A method according to claim 18, wherein displaying the different aspects of the retrieved documents are interactively guided and selected by a user.
Specification