Domain knowledge-assisted information processing

• US 7,542,969 B1
• Filed: 11/03/2005
• Issued: 06/02/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 11/03/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Shih, Leo, Adamson, Dan, Rappaport, Alain T.
• Primary Examiner(s): Trujillo; James
• Assistant Examiner(s): Moser; Bruce M
• Application Number:
  US11/265,994
• Time in Patent Office: 1,307 Days
• Field of Search: 707/4, 707/6
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3338 Query expansion
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/334 Query execution G06F16/335 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/338 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99934 Query formulation, input preparation, or translation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99936 Pattern matching access

Abstract

A method of searching for information includes receiving a query, providing the query to a first search engine that searches a set of data sources, the data sources having relationships to an ontology, receiving search results from the search engine, analyzing the search results to determine at least one statistic corresponding to the search results and the query, wherein the statistic is based upon a relevance score that is calculated based upon a first weighting function related to a concept, a second weighting function related to a data source item, a set of items related to the concept, and a set of items related to the search results, and providing at least one concept to a user, wherein said at least one concept correspond to said at least one statistic.

Claims

1. A method of searching for information, comprising:

receiving a query;

providing the query to a first search engine that searches a set of data sources, the data sources having relationships to at least one ontology, the ontology modeling relationships between concepts in a domain and data source content containing information specific to the concepts;

receiving search results from the search engine;

analyzing the search results with one or more processors to determine at least one statistic corresponding to the search results and the query, wherein the statistic is based upon a relevance score for each of a plurality of concepts given the query, the relevance score expressed as

$r_{\mathrm{cq}}=w<br><br>\left(c\right)<br><br>\underset{i}{\sum <br><br>}<br><br><br><br>\left[w<br><br>\left(i\right)<br><br>f<br><br>\left(h_c,h_q\right)\right]$

where w(c) is a weighing function related to a concept c, w(i) is a weighing function for a data source item i, h_c is a set of items related to the concept c, h_q is a set of items related to the query q, and ƒ

(h_c, h_q) is a normalized score function, wherein weighing function w (i) varies by data source;

providing a subset of the concepts to a user based on the relevance score; and

using a template to process domain specific rules and the subset of the concepts.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein using a template to process comprises defining properties in the ontology that are to be added to the query in order to perform a focused search.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a selection of one of the at least one concept based on the relevance score; and

performing a focused search using a second search engine by combining the selected concept with the original query and submitting the combination to the second search engine.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein performing a focused search comprises combining the selection and the query with a logical OR operator.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein performing a focused search comprises combining the selection and the query with a logical AND operator.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the selection comprises at least one concept data field entry and performing a focused search comprises combining the at least one concept data field entry and the query with a logical OR operator.

7. The method of claim 3, wherein the selection comprises at least one concept data field entry and performing a focused search comprises combining the at least one concept data field entry and the query with a logical AND operator.

8. The method of claim 3, wherein the selection comprises a drug related to the query.

9. The method of claim 3, wherein the selection comprises a therapy related to the query.

10. The method of claim 3, wherein the selection comprises a synonym of the query.

11. The method of claim 3, wherein the selection comprises a trade name of the query.

12. The method of claim 3, wherein the selection comprises a generic name of the query.

13. The method of claim 3, wherein the selection comprises a project name of the query.

14. The method of claim 3, wherein the selection comprises a medical treatment related to the query.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the user is a human being.

16. The method of claim 3, wherein the second search engine is the same as the first search engine.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the query comprises a concept.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the concept comprises a filter identified by the ontology as being relevant to the query.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of data sources comprises healthcare domain information.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the query comprises a medical treatment.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein the statistic is determined based upon frequency analysis of the search results, the frequency analysis comprising determining a query occurrence rate of the query within the search results.

22. The method of claim 1, wherein the statistic is determined based upon an occurrence rate of a keyword within the search results, wherein the keyword is related to the query.

23. The method of claim 1, further comprising ranking the search results based at least in part upon the at least one statistic.

24. The method of claim 1, wherein the search engine searches a domain of information related to a particular subject.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the domain comprises a medical information database.

26. A computer comprising a user input device, a user output device, and a processor, wherein the computer performs the method according to claim 1.

27. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving a query comprises receiving a query from an Internet search.

28. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving a query comprises receiving a query from an advertising engine, wherein the advertising engine provides an advertisement based upon a user input.

29. A domain processing system, comprising:

an ontology connector that identifies ontology content stored in a database related to a selected domain of information, wherein the ontology content is related to a query received from a user and models relationships between concepts in the domain and data source content containing information specific to the concepts;

a query expander that generates an enhanced query based at least in part on the query- and the ontology content;

at least one search tool that receives the enhanced query and search a network fox network content related to the query, wherein the search tool provides search results indicative of the network content based upon the enhanced query;

a results processor that analyzes and generate statistics based at least h part upon a relevance score for at last one concept given the query, the relevance score expressed as

$r_{\mathrm{cq}}=w<br><br>\left(c\right)<br><br>\underset{i}{\sum <br><br>}<br><br><br><br>\left[w<br><br>\left(i\right)<br><br>f<br><br>\left(h_c,h_q\right)\right]$

where w(c) is a weighing function related to a concept c, w(i) is a weighing function for a data source item i, h_c is a set of items related to the concept c, h_q, is a set of items related to the query q, and ƒ

(h_c, h_q) is a normalized score function, wherein weighing function w(i) varies according to the recency of the data some item; and

a user interface that provides the search results and a most relevant concept to a user via a display device, the most relevant concept determined according to the relevance score.

30. A computer comprising a user input device, a user output device, and a processor, wherein the computer performs the method of searching for information, comprising:

receiving a query;

providing the query to a first search engine that searches a set of data sources, the data sources having relationships defined in at least one ontology, the ontology modeling concepts within the set of data sources and the relationships between the concepts;

receiving search results from the search engine;

analyzing the search results to determine at least one statistic corresponding to the search results and the query, wherein the statistic is based upon a relevance score for each of a plurality of concepts given the query, the relevance score expressed as

$r_{\mathrm{cq}}=w<br><br>\left(c\right)<br><br>\underset{i}{\sum <br><br>}<br><br><br><br>\left[w<br><br>\left(i\right)<br><br>f<br><br>\left(h_c,h_q\right)\right]$

where w(c) is a weighing function related lo a concept c, w(i) is a weighing function for a data source item i, h_c is a set of items related to the concept c, h_q, is a set of items related to the query q, and ƒ

(h_c, h_q) is a normalized score function;

providing a subset of the plurality of concepts to a user based at least on the relative relevance scores for the plurality of concepts;

receiving a selection from the user of one concept from the subset; and

using a template to process domain specific d e s and the selected concept to perform a focused search using a second search engine based at least upon the selection and the query;

wherein the statistic is determined based at least on a frequency analysis of the search results, the frequency analysis comprising determining a query occurrence rate of the query within the search results or a keyword occurrence rate of a keyword within the search results, wherein the keyword is related to the query.