Navigation system for text
First Claim
1. A computer retrieval system comprising:
- memory which stores instructions comprising;
instructions for receiving a user query in a natural language;
instructions for identifying text strings from an associated knowledge base stored in associated memory, each identified text string in the knowledge base containing at least one expression which is matched with at least one expression of the user query, each text string comprising a sequence of words forming a sentence of a document;
instructions for refining the user query comprising instructions for representing at least a group of the text strings identified from different text documents as a navigation tree in which each of a plurality of selectable nodes comprises a linguistically coherent expression representative of at least one syntactic unit in at least one of the identified text strings and wherein parent-child relationships between syntactic units in text strings in the group of text strings are determined and used in structuring links between the respective nodes of the navigation tree, whereby in navigating the tree, a user is able to select nodes which refine the query by selecting a first node and selecting a second node which is linked to the first node in the tree, the first and second linguistically coherent expressions of the first and second nodes being representative of syntactic units in a same one of the identified text strings; and
instructions for retrieving text documents from the knowledge base related to the refined query; and
a processor which executes the instructions.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A computer retrieval system includes memory which stores instructions for (1) receiving a user query in a natural language, (2) identifying text strings from an associated knowledge base, each containing at least one expression (word or multi-word expression) which is matched with at least one expression of the user query, (3) refining the user query by representing at least a group of the text strings as a navigation tree in which each of a plurality of selectable nodes comprises an expression representative of at least one syntactic unit in at least one of the identified text strings and wherein relationships between syntactic units are used in structuring the nodes of the navigation tree, and (4) retrieving text from the knowledge base related to the refined query. A processor executes the instructions.
53 Citations
25 Claims
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1. A computer retrieval system comprising:
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memory which stores instructions comprising; instructions for receiving a user query in a natural language; instructions for identifying text strings from an associated knowledge base stored in associated memory, each identified text string in the knowledge base containing at least one expression which is matched with at least one expression of the user query, each text string comprising a sequence of words forming a sentence of a document; instructions for refining the user query comprising instructions for representing at least a group of the text strings identified from different text documents as a navigation tree in which each of a plurality of selectable nodes comprises a linguistically coherent expression representative of at least one syntactic unit in at least one of the identified text strings and wherein parent-child relationships between syntactic units in text strings in the group of text strings are determined and used in structuring links between the respective nodes of the navigation tree, whereby in navigating the tree, a user is able to select nodes which refine the query by selecting a first node and selecting a second node which is linked to the first node in the tree, the first and second linguistically coherent expressions of the first and second nodes being representative of syntactic units in a same one of the identified text strings; and instructions for retrieving text documents from the knowledge base related to the refined query; and a processor which executes the instructions. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. A method for retrieving text strings responsive to a user'"'"'s query comprising:
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inputting a query in a natural language; identifying text strings from a knowledge base, each of the identified text strings comprising at least one expression which is matched with at least one expression of the user query; for each of at least a group of the identified text strings, determining relationships between syntactic units of the text string; representing the at least a group of the text strings as a navigation tree in which each of a plurality of user-selectable nodes comprises a linguistically coherent expression representative of at least one syntactic unit in at least one of the identified text strings and wherein the determined relationships between syntactic units are used in structuring links between the nodes of the navigation tree, the linguistically coherent expressions that are representative of syntactic units grouping together syntactic units from different text strings having the same normalized form, and wherein the navigation tree includes nodes as query refinement choices, each refinement choice node comprising a linguistically coherent expression representative of at least one syntactic unit in at least one of the identified text strings which does not match any expressions of the input user query; and retrieving text from the knowledge base related to the nodes selected by a user during navigation of the tree. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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25. A system for retrieving text responsive to a query comprising:
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a knowledge base which stores indexed text strings; a graphical user interface for inputting a user query and displaying a navigation tree for user navigation of a group of text strings, each of the text strings being retrieved from the knowledge base as responsive to the user query; a processor in communication with the user interface and the knowledge base which processes the user query and retrieves the text strings from the knowledge base, the processor executing instructions for; identifying text strings in the knowledge base, wherein each of the identified strings includes at least one expression which matches at least one expression of the user query, the at least one matching expression having the same lemma form as the expression in the user query or being indexed in the knowledge base as being a synonym of the at least one expression in the user query; identifying syntactic units in each of the retrieved text strings; representing the identified syntactic units of a plurality of the retrieved text strings in the form of a navigation tree in which a plurality of nodes are connected to a root node, whereby a pathway from a root node to a terminal node of the connected nodes represents one of the retrieved text strings, the nodes of the pathway each representing at least one of the identified syntactic units; and when a user navigates from a root node to a selected one of the connected nodes, displaying text retrieved from the knowledge base which is associated with the pathway.
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Specification