Method and system to guide formulations of questions for digital investigation activities

• US 9,563,656 B2
• Filed: 05/17/2010
• Issued: 02/07/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 05/17/2010
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Xerox Corporation (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Xerox Corporation (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Inventors: Castellani, Stefania, Lagos, Nikolaos, Grasso, Maria Antonietta, Roulland, Frederic, Hairon, Nicolas
• Primary Examiner(s): Saeed, Usmaan
• Assistant Examiner(s): Kim, Paul
• Application Number:
  US12/781,299
• Publication Number:
  US 20110282892A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,458 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/242 Query formulation

Abstract

A system and method for guiding a user in building a query are disclosed. The method includes providing an interaction space in which a user formulates a query using a plurality of query building blocks selected from a predefined set of query building blocks. The user'"'"'s formulation of the query is guided. Guiding selection of at least a next building block is provided by at least one of a content-based mechanism which limits the selection of the next building block to those which will yield at least one result from an indexed collection of documents, a structure-based selection mechanism which limits the selection of the next building block to those which meet a predefined grammar, and a usage-based selection mechanism which proposes a next building block based on patterns of building blocks used in building prior queries. Each of these guidance mechanisms may be provided with the result that the next block proposed is informed by each of the mechanisms.

Claims

1. A method for guiding a user in building a query comprising:

providing an interaction space in which a user formulates a query using a plurality of query building blocks selected from a predefined set of query building blocks, wherein selectable ones of the query building blocks are displayed in the interaction space;

providing a content-based mechanism which limits the selection of the next building block to those which will yield at least one result from an indexed collection of documents, a structure-based selection mechanism which limits the selection of the next building block to those which meet a predefined grammar, and a usage-based selection mechanism which proposes a next building block based on patterns of building blocks used in building prior queries;

with a processor, guiding the user'"'"'s formulation of the query including, when at least one building block has been selected by the user for formulating the query, guiding selection of at least a next building block by at least one of;

the content-based mechanism which limits the selection of the next building block to those which will yield at least one result from the indexed collection of documents,

the structure-based selection mechanism which limits the selection of the next building block to those which meet the predefined grammar, and

the usage-based selection mechanism which proposes the next building block based on patterns of building blocks used in building prior queries,

wherein the interaction space includes a question editing area and wherein the method comprises providing for the user to move selected blocks into the question editing area in formulating the query.

2. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory recording medium encoding instructions, which when executed by a computer, perform a method comprising:

providing an interaction space for a user to formulate a query using a plurality of query building blocks selected from a predefined set of query building blocks;

contemporaneously displaying at least a subset of the query building blocks;

receiving a user'"'"'s selection of a result type building block from the displayed query building blocks into an editing area of the interaction space;

after receiving the user'"'"'s selection of the result type building block, guiding a user in formulating the query including, providing a content-based mechanism which limits selectable blocks to those which will yield at least one result from an indexed collection of documents, providing a structure-based selection mechanism which limits selectable blocks to those which meet a predefined grammar, and providing a usage-based selection mechanism which proposes a next building block based on patterns of building blocks used in building prior queries, whereby a natural language query is formulated from a sequence of the blocks including the result type block and is displayed in the editing area.

3. A method for guiding a user in building a query comprising:

providing an interaction space in which a user formulates a query using a plurality of query building blocks selected from a predefined set of query building blocks, wherein selectable ones of the query building blocks are displayed in the interaction space;

wherein the selected building blocks are displayed in a sequence in a question editing area of the interaction space, the method further comprising;

providing for the user to start to build the query by selecting a first of the query building blocks, and moving it into the editing area;

providing a content-based mechanism which limits the selection of the next building block to those which will yield at least one result from an indexed collection of documents, a structure-based selection mechanism which limits the selection of the next building block to those which meet a predefined grammar, and a usage-based selection mechanism which proposes a next building block based on patterns of building blocks used in building prior queries; and

with a processor, guiding the user'"'"'s formulation of the query including, when at least one building block has been selected by the user for formulating the query, guiding selection of at least a next building block by at least one of;

the content-based mechanism which limits the selection of the next building block to those which will yield at least one result from the indexed collection of documents,

the structure-based selection mechanism which limits the selection of the next building block to those which meet the predefined grammar, and

the usage-based selection mechanism which proposes the next building block based on patterns of building blocks used in building prior queries.