Method using ontology and user query processing to solve inventor problems and user problems

• US 7,685,118 B2
• Filed: 08/12/2004
• Issued: 03/23/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/12/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Beijing Iwint Technology Limited
• Original Assignee: Iwint International Holdings Inc.
• Inventors: Zhang, Guoming
• Primary Examiner(s): Jalil; Neveen Abel
• Assistant Examiner(s): Pulliam; Christyann R
• Application Number:
  US10/916,617
• Publication Number:
  US 20060047632A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,049 Days
• Field of Search: 707/5
• US Class Current: 706/55
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/367 Ontology

Abstract

A system, method and computer program product for solving a problem based on ontology methods for data/knowledge presentation and processing, may be implemented in a linguistic processing module. The basic components of the linguistic processing module may be a linguistic knowledge base (KB), an ontology KB, and/or an expert KB. The problem solved may include a user or an inventor problem. The method may include storing a user query which may include a structured, or a non-structured description, parsing a non-structured query to create a structured query including a formal semantic representation of the query, semantically expanding the formal semantic representation, searching the expert KB using the formal semantic representations to local solutions for the problem, and semantically sorting the solutions to produce a list of solutions of the problem.

Claims

1. A method for solving a problem comprising:

receiving a user query problem description which comprises at least one of a structured user query problem description or a non-structured user query problem description, said structured user query problem description comprising a formal semantic representation of said user query problem description, said formal semantic representation comprising fields;

parsing said user query problem description when said user query problem description is a said non-structured user query problem description, to create said structured user query problem description;

semantically expanding said formal semantic representation of said user query problem description based on an ontology knowledge base to obtain a semantic expansion of said formal semantic representation of said user query problem description, wherein said ontology knowledge base comprises a database of a plurality of terms, each of said plurality of terms being classified as at least one of a term-concept or a term-verb, wherein two or more of said plurality of terms are related with one another representing a knowledge domain, said semantic expansion having a type comprising a kind-of expansion and at least one of a synonym expansion or an association expansion on at least one term in said formal semantic representation of said user query problem description, wherein said kind-of expansion comprises a hypernym to hyponym expansion;

searching an expert knowledge base using said semantic expansion to obtain a solutions list including at least one solution for said user query problem description, each said solution comprising fields, said at least one solution having a semantic relation to said user query problem description determined based on said type of semantic expansion;

semantically sorting said solutions list based on said semantic relation of said at least one solution to said user query problem description;

wherein said semantically sorting comprises sorting said solutions list based on solution types, wherein said solution types comprise;

a precise solution comprising said fields exactly coinciding with or a synonym of said fields of said structured user query problem description;

a particular solution comprising at least one said field more specific than a corresponding field of said structured user query problem description;

a general solution comprising at least one said field generalizing the corresponding field of said structured user query problem description; and

an analogous solution comprising at least one said field associated with the corresponding field of said structured user query problem description; and

storing said solutions list in a computer-readable storage medium.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said user query problem description comprises a structured query comprising a verb parameter object (VPO) format.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein a problem of said user query problem description comprises at least one of an inventor problem or a user problem.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said non-structured user query problem description is presented in a natural language format.

5. The method according to claim 3, wherein said searching obtains said solutions list based on a relevance of said at least one solution to the problem.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said parsing step comprises:

lexically and grammatically analyzing said non-structured user query problem description to obtain a lexical or grammatical analysis of said non-structured user query problem description; and

semantically analyzing said non-structured query based on said lexical or grammatical analysis of said non-structured user query problem description to create said formal semantic representation of said user query problem description.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein said lexically and grammatically analyzing is based on at least one of a linguistic knowledge base, or the ontology knowledge base to recognize noun and verb phrases of said user query problem description.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein said semantically analyzing creates said formal semantic representation of said user query problem description in a verb parameter object (VPO) format using a lemmatization dictionary and linguistic algorithms for noun and verb phrases canonization and list of parameters from a linguistic knowledge base.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein a relation of two or more of said plurality of terms classified as a term-verb includes at least one of a direct synonym or a syntactic synonym.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein a relation of two or more of said plurality of terms classified as a term-concept includes at least one of a direct synonym, a kind-of or an association.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein said ontology knowledge base comprises at least one of technology or tools for domain knowledge experts to edit or enrich said ontology knowledge base.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein said semantic expansion comprises a list of search patterns relevant to said formal semantic representation of said user query problem description.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein at least one search pattern from said list of patterns includes a relevance value representing a degree of relevance of said search pattern to said formal semantic representation of said user query problem description.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein said searching comprises locating all available solutions of the problem in said expert knowledge base based on at least one search pattern to obtain said solutions list.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein said expert knowledge base is a knowledge base of technical solutions extracted from a natural language document.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein said natural language document comprises at least one of a patent or an article.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein said technical solutions are presented in natural language sentences or in subject verb parameter object (SVPO) format.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein said expert knowledge base is provided with technology or tools for domain knowledge experts to edit and enrich said expert knowledge base.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein said locating all available solutions is performed for the technical solutions from said expert knowledge base, where V, P or O fields match the appropriate fields of the search patterns.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein said technical solutions located are given similar relevance values to relevance values of the search patterns.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein the ontology knowledge base is based on an ontology comprising a hierarchical lexical structure.

22. The method of claim 15, wherein said solutions list is further sorted according to the relevance values of said technical solutions.

23. A system for solving a problem comprising:

receiving means for receiving a user query problem description which comprises at least one of a structured user query problem description or a non-structured user query problem description, said structured user query problem description comprising a formal semantic representation, said formal semantic representation comprising fields;

parsing means for parsing said user query problem description when said user query problem description is a said non-structured user query problem description, to create said structured user query problem description;

semantically expanding means for semantically expanding said formal semantic representation of said user query problem description based on an ontology knowledge base to obtain a semantic expansion of said formal semantic representation of said user query problem description, wherein said ontology knowledge base comprises a database of a plurality of terms, each of said plurality of terms being classified as at least one of a term-concept or a term-verb, wherein two or more of said plurality of terms are related with one another representing a knowledge domain, said semantic expansion having a type comprising a kind-of expansion and at least one of a synonym expansion or an association expansion on at least one term in said formal semantic representation of said user query problem description, wherein said kind-of expansion comprises a hypernym to hyponym expansion;

searching means for searching an expert knowledge base using said semantic expansion to obtain a solutions list including at least one solution for said user query problem description, each said solution comprising fields, said at least one solution having a semantic relation to said user query problem description determined based on said type of semantic expansion;

semantically sorting means for semantically sorting said solutions list based on said semantic relation of said at least one solution to said user query problem description;

wherein said semantically sorting means comprises sorting means for sorting said solutions list based on solution types, wherein said solution types comprise;

a precise solution corn said fields exactly coinciding with or a synonym of said fields of said structured user query problem description;

a particular solution comprising at least one said field more specific than a corresponding field of said structured user query problem description;

a general solution comprising at least one said field generalizing the corresponding field of said structured user query problem description; and

an analogous solution comprising at least one said field associated with the corresponding field of said structured user query problem description; and

storing means for storing said solutions list in a computer-readable storage medium.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the problem comprises at least one of an inventor problem or a user problem.

25. The system of claim 23, wherein said semantically expanding means comprises means for searching for any of said at least one solution that is relevant to the problem.

26. The system of claim 23, wherein said parsing means comprises:

means for lexically and grammatically analyzing said non-structured user query problem description to obtain a lexical or grammatical analysis of said non-structured user query problem description; and

means for semantically analyzing said non-structured query based on said lexical or grammatical analysis of said non-structured user query problem description to create said formal semantic representation of said user query problem description.

27. The system of claim 23, wherein said searching means locates at least one of available solutions of the problem in said expert knowledge base based on at least one search pattern to obtain said solutions list.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein said expert knowledge base comprises a knowledge base of technical solutions extracted from a natural language document.

29. The system of claim 28, wherein said solutions list is further sorted according to relevance values of said technical solutions.

30. A tangible machine readable storage medium that provides instructions, which when executed by a computing platform, cause said computing platform to perform operations comprising a method for solving a problem comprising:

storing a user query problem description which comprises at least one of a structured user query problem description or a non-structured user query problem description, said structured user query problem description comprising a formal semantic representation said formal semantic representation comprising fields;

parsing said user query problem description when said user query problem description is a said non-structured user query problem description, to create said structured user query problem description;

semantically expanding said formal semantic representation of said user query problem description based on an ontology knowledge base to obtain a semantic expansion of said formal semantic representation of said user query problem description, wherein said ontology knowledge base comprises a database of a plurality of terms, each of said plurality of terms being classified as at least one of a term-concept or a term-verb, wherein two or more of said plurality of terms are related with one another representing a knowledge domain, said semantic expansion having a type comprising a kind-of expansion and at least one of a synonym expansion or an association expansion on at least one term in said formal semantic representation of said user query problem description, wherein said kind-of expansion comprises a hypernym to hyponym expansion;

searching an expert knowledge base using said semantic expansion to obtain a solutions list including at least one solution for said user query problem description, each said solution comprising fields, said at least one solution having a semantic relation to said user query problem description determined based on said type of semantic expansion;

semantically sorting said solutions list based on said semantic relation of said at least one solution to said user query problem description;

wherein said semantically sorting comprises sorting said solutions list based on solution types, wherein said solution types comprise;

a precise solution comprising said fields exactly coinciding with or a synonym of said fields of said structured user query problem description;

a particular solution comprising at least one said field more specific than a corresponding field of said structured user query problem description;

a general solution comprising at least one said field generalizing the corresponding field of said structured user query problem description; and

an analogous solution comprising at least one said field associated with the corresponding field of said structured user query problem description; and

storing said solutions list on a computer.

31. A method for solving a problem comprising:

receiving a user query problem description on a computer, said user query problem description comprising at least one of a structured user query problem description or a non-structured user query problem description, said structured user query problem description comprising a formal semantic representation comprising a verb field, a parameter field and an object field;

parsing said user query problem description when said user query problem description is a said non-structured user query problem description, to create said structured user query problem description;

semantically expanding said formal semantic representation of said user query problem description based on an ontology knowledge base to obtain a semantic expansion of said formal semantic representation of said user query problem description, wherein said ontology knowledge base comprises a database of a plurality of terms, each of said plurality of terms being classified as at least one of a term-concept or a term-verb, wherein two or more of said plurality of terms are related with one another representing a knowledge domain, said semantic expansion having a type comprising a kind-of expansion and at least one of a synonym expansion or an association expansion on at least one term in said formal semantic representation of said user query problem description, wherein said kind-of expansion comprises a hypernym to hyponym expansion;

searching an expert knowledge base using said semantic expansion to obtain a solutions list including at least one solution for said user query problem description, each said solution comprising a verb field, a parameter field and an object field, said at least one solution having a semantic relation to said user query problem description determined based on said type of semantic expansion;

sorting said solutions list based on solution types, wherein said solution types comprise;

a precise solution comprising said fields exactly coinciding with or a synonym of said fields of said structured user query problem description;

a particular solution comprising at least one said field more specific than a corresponding field of said structured user query problem description;

a general solution comprising at least one said field generalizing the corresponding field of said structured user query problem description; and

an analogous solution comprising at least one said field associated with the corresponding field of said structured user query problem description;

storing said solutions list on a computer; and

providing said solutions list via the computer.