AUTOMATED SELF-SERVICE USER SUPPORT BASED ON ONTOLOGY ANALYSIS

• US 20130290366A1
• Filed: 04/30/2012
• Published: 10/31/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 05/27/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Boyle, Currie P., Javahery, Homa, Rozsa, Eniko I., Yamamoto, Paul A.
• Granted Patent: US 10,037,377 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/767
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3338 Query expansion
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3344 using natural language analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/30 Semantic analysis

Abstract

A system for implementing a method that provides information to a user in response to a received user query. A natural language analysis generates substrings relevant to the user query. An ontology analysis outputs: terms of an ontology matching the relevant generated substrings; and relationships between the terms. A query analysis analyzes the user query regarding the outputted terms and relationships, including ascertaining whether the user query is more suitable for service than for an information search. If it is so ascertained, then service actions for the user to perform are identified to the user. If it is not so ascertained, then: the user query is refined based on the outputted terms and relationships; a search query is generated based on the refined user query, a search is initiated based on the search query, and results of the search are provided to the user.

Claims

1. A computer program product, comprising a computer readable hardware storage device having computer readable program code stored therein, said program code configured to be executed by a processor of a computer system to implement a method for providing information to a user in response to a received user query, said method comprising:

said processor receiving the user query from the user, said received user query expressed in a free-form text format;

said processor performing a natural language analysis to generate substrings relevant to the received user query;

after said performing the natural language analysis, said processor performing an ontology analysis to output terms of an ontology of domain-specific information and to further output relationships between pairs of said terms, said outputted terms constrained to match the relevant substrings generated by said performing the natural language analysis;

after said performing the ontology analysis, said processor performing a query analysis to analyze the user query with respect to the outputted terms and relationships between the terms, said performing the query analysis comprising ascertaining whether the user query is more suitable for service than for a search for information;

if said ascertaining ascertains that the user query is more suitable for service than for said search for information, then identifying, to the user, service actions to be performed by the user;

if said ascertaining ascertains that the user query is not more suitable for service than for said search for information, then refining the user query based on the outputted terms and relationships between the terms, generating a search query based on the refined user query, initiating a search based on the search query, and providing results of the search to the user.

2. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein said ascertaining ascertains that the user query is more suitable for service than for said search for information.

3. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein said ascertaining ascertains that the user query is not more suitable for service than for said search for information.

4. The computer program product of claim 3, wherein said performing the query analysis comprises prior to said ascertaining:

determining that the outputted terms and relationships between the terms are not sufficiently specific to enable a search for requested information in the user query after the user query is refined based on the outputted terms and relationships between the terms;

presenting questions to the user pertinent to the outputted terms and relationships between the terms not being sufficiently specific;

receiving, from the user in response to the presented questions, clarification with respect to a specificity of the outputted terms and relationships between the terms; and

modifying the user query, based on the received clarification, to enable the refined user query to be sufficiently specific to enable said search for requested information in the refined user query, wherein said refining the user query comprises refining the modified use query.

5. The computer program product of claim 3, wherein said performing the query analysis comprises prior to said ascertaining:

determining that the user query is not sufficiently complete due to the user query not including sufficient information to enable an expert in a field pertinent to the user query to respond to a request for information in the user query;

presenting questions to the user pertinent to the user query not being sufficiently complete;

receiving, from the user in response to the presented questions, information missing from the user query; and

modifying the user query, based on the received missing information, to make the user query sufficiently complete to enable the expert in the field to respond to the request for information in the user query, wherein said refining the user query comprises refining the modified use query.

6. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the ontology is represented as a tree comprising nodes and edges connecting adjacent nodes, wherein each node is associated with a term of the ontology such that the nodes of the tree comprise the outputted terms that match the relevant substrings, and wherein each edge connecting adjacent nodes represents a relationship between the terms to which the adjacent nodes are respectively associated.

7. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein said performing the ontology analysis comprises:

identifying multiple terms of the ontology that match a selected substring of the generated substrings;

in response to said identifying multiple terms, presenting questions to the user for assisting the user to select a term of the multiple terms;

after said presenting questions to the user, receiving from the user a selected term of the multiple terms that best matches the selected substring.

8. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein said performing the ontology analysis comprises annotating a substring of the generated substrings with a term of the outputted terms.

9. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein said performing the natural language analysis comprises assigning a linguistic category to different words of the user query, wherein each linguistic category is specific to the word to which each linguistic category is assigned, and wherein generation of the substrings by performing the natural language analysis comprises utilizing the linguistic category assigned to the different words of the user query.

10. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein a first, second, and third linguistic category assigned to a first, second, and third word is a noun, a verb, and an adjective, respectively.

11. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein said performing the natural language analysis comprises performing a morphological analysis to determine a single word consisting of a lemma that is specific to each word of a plurality of words of the user query, and wherein the generated substrings comprise the lemma specific to each word of the plurality of words of the user query.

12. A computer system comprising a processor, a memory coupled to the processor, and a computer readable storage device coupled to the processor, said storage device containing program code configured to be executed by the processor via the memory to implement a method for providing information to a user in response to a received user query, said method comprising:

said processor receiving the user query from the user, said received user query expressed in a free-form text format;

said processor performing a natural language analysis to generate substrings relevant to the received user query;

after said performing the natural language analysis, said processor performing an ontology analysis to output terms of an ontology of domain-specific information and to further output relationships between pairs of said terms, said outputted terms constrained to match the relevant substrings generated by said performing the natural language analysis;

after said performing the ontology analysis, said processor performing a query analysis to analyze the user query with respect to the outputted terms and relationships between the terms, said performing the query analysis comprising ascertaining whether the user query is more suitable for service than for a search for information;

if said ascertaining ascertains that the user query is more suitable for service than for said search for information, then identifying, to the user, service actions to be performed by the user;

if said ascertaining ascertains that the user query is not more suitable for service than for said search for information, then refining the user query based on the outputted terms and relationships between the terms, generating a search query based on the refined user query, initiating a search based on the search query, and providing results of the search to the user.

13. The computer system of claim 12, wherein said ascertaining ascertains that the user query is more suitable for service than for said search for information.

14. The computer system of claim 12, wherein said ascertaining ascertains that the user query is not more suitable for service than for said search for information.

15. The computer system of claim 14, wherein said performing the query analysis comprises prior to said ascertaining:

determining that the outputted terms and relationships between the terms are not sufficiently specific to enable a search for requested information in the user query after the user query is refined based on the outputted terms and relationships between the terms;

presenting questions to the user pertinent to the outputted terms and relationships between the terms not being sufficiently specific;

receiving, from the user in response to the presented questions, clarification with respect to a specificity of the outputted terms and relationships between the terms; and

modifying the user query, based on the received clarification, to enable the refined user query to be sufficiently specific to enable said search for requested information in the refined user query, wherein said refining the user query comprises refining the modified use query.

16. The computer system of claim 14, wherein said performing the query analysis comprises prior to said ascertaining:

determining that the user query is not sufficiently complete due to the user query not including sufficient information to enable an expert in a field pertinent to the user query to respond to a request for information in the user query;

presenting questions to the user pertinent to the user query not being sufficiently complete;

receiving, from the user in response to the presented questions, information missing from the user query; and

modifying the user query, based on the received missing information, to make the user query sufficiently complete to enable the expert in the field to respond to the request for information in the user query, wherein said refining the user query comprises refining the modified use query.

17. The computer system of claim 12, wherein the ontology is represented as a tree comprising nodes and edges connecting adjacent nodes, wherein each node is associated with a term of the ontology such that the nodes of the tree comprise the outputted terms that match the relevant substrings, and wherein each edge connecting adjacent nodes represents a relationship between the terms to which the adjacent nodes are respectively associated.

18. The computer system of claim 12, wherein said performing the ontology analysis comprises:

identifying multiple terms of the ontology that match a selected substring of the generated substrings;

in response to said identifying multiple terms, presenting questions to the user for assisting the user to select a term of the multiple terms;

after said presenting questions to the user, receiving from the user a selected term of the multiple terms that best matches the selected substring.

19. The computer system of claim 12, wherein said performing the ontology analysis comprises annotating a substring of the generated substrings with a term of the outputted terms.

20. The computer system of claim 12, wherein said performing the natural language analysis comprises performing a morphological analysis to determine a single word consisting of a lemma that is specific to each word of a plurality of words of the user query, and wherein the generated substrings comprise the lemma specific to each word of the plurality of words of the user query.