Automated system and method for capturing and managing user knowledge within a search system
First Claim
1. For use in a system having a memory for storing objects, first ones of the objects being asset elements that are each being cataloged by being associated with one or more natural language concepts, second ones of the objects being locator elements each for storing indicators indicative of a respective one of the natural language concepts, the memory further for storing association indicators each for relating a respective one of the asset elements to an associated one of the locator elements wherein the associated one of the locator elements stores an indicator indicative of a natural language concept descriptive of the associated asset element, a search system for use in searching for asset elements by specifying natural language concepts, the search system, comprising:
- user interface means for receiving from a user one or more indicators each indicative of a natural language concept;
search means coupled to said user interface for searching the memory to locate all locator elements storing any of said one or more indicators received from the user, said search means further for searching the memory to locate, for each locator element that is located, any related asset element; and
memory modification means coupled to said search means for allowing the user to create additional association indicators each to selectably relate a selected one of the located locator elements with a selected one of the located asset elements, and whereby said selected one of the located asset elements is newly-associated with an additional one of the natural language concepts.
12 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A system and method is provided for allowing users to interactively modify a search index used in performing concept-based searches. The system includes a repository for storing a network of natural language concepts. The repository further stores associations between selected ones of the natural language concepts and other data items that are cataloged according to the natural language concepts, wherein the data items may be stored within the repository, or on one or more remote systems. A user provides one or more natural language concepts as a search query used to locate associated ones of the data items. Subsequent iterations of a search may be performed to modify the scope of the search. After successful search results are obtained, the user may create one or more new associations, wherein each association relates any of the one or more natural language concepts included within a query with any selected one of the data items located during any iteration of the search. Similarly, the user may delete selected associations existing between located ones of the natural language concepts and selected ones of the data items. This modification of the knowledge base allows the search index to evolve to reflect the needs of the user. According to one aspect of the invention, the network of natural language concepts includes relationships between concepts that organize the concepts according to generalizations and specifications. The user is allowed to create additional relationships between any of the natural language concepts that are located during any iteration of a search such that the organization of the concept network is tailored to user needs. The user is further allowed to store additional natural language concepts in the repository, and to relate the additional natural language concepts both to other concepts, and to selected ones of the data items. According to another aspect of the invention, a user display is provided to list, for all iterations of a search, all query terms specified by a user, all located concepts, and all located data items. The user creates and/or deletes associations between the displayed concepts and/or between concepts and data items using either a standard “drag and drop” interface, or using a sequence of “copy and paste” keystrokes.
139 Citations
33 Claims
-
1. For use in a system having a memory for storing objects, first ones of the objects being asset elements that are each being cataloged by being associated with one or more natural language concepts, second ones of the objects being locator elements each for storing indicators indicative of a respective one of the natural language concepts, the memory further for storing association indicators each for relating a respective one of the asset elements to an associated one of the locator elements wherein the associated one of the locator elements stores an indicator indicative of a natural language concept descriptive of the associated asset element, a search system for use in searching for asset elements by specifying natural language concepts, the search system, comprising:
-
user interface means for receiving from a user one or more indicators each indicative of a natural language concept;
search means coupled to said user interface for searching the memory to locate all locator elements storing any of said one or more indicators received from the user, said search means further for searching the memory to locate, for each locator element that is located, any related asset element; and
memory modification means coupled to said search means for allowing the user to create additional association indicators each to selectably relate a selected one of the located locator elements with a selected one of the located asset elements, and whereby said selected one of the located asset elements is newly-associated with an additional one of the natural language concepts. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
-
-
14. A system used to catalog groups of data signals, comprising:
-
a storage device to store each of the groups of data signals, said storage device further to store concept indicators each indicative of a respective natural language concept, said storage device further to store relationship indicators each indicative of an association between a respective one of the groups of data signals and a respective one of the concept indicators;
search means coupled to said storage device, said search means for searching said storage device to locate specified ones of said natural language concepts as specified by a user of the system, said search means further for locating, for each located one of said natural language concepts, any associated group of data signals as indicated by one of said relationship indicators; and
relationship creation means coupled to said search means for allowing each of said located ones of said natural language concepts to be selectively newly associated with one or more located groups of data signals by selectively creating one or more new ones of said relationship indicators. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
-
-
25. For use in a data processing system having a repository for storing locator elements each being indicative of a natural language concept, wherein the natural language concepts indicated by the locator elements are used to catalog data items by creating associations that each associate one of the data items with an associated one of the locator elements, the method comprising the steps of:
-
(a) receiving an indicator indicative of a natural language concept;
(b) searching the repository for one or more locator elements indicative of the natural language concept indicated by said received indicator;
(c) identifying all data items that are associated with each locator element located in step (b);
(d) repeating steps (a)-(c) a selectable number of times; and
(e) associating a selected one of the locator elements located during any iteration of said step (b) with a selected one of the data items identified during any iteration of said step (c). - View Dependent Claims (26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33)
-
Specification