Natural Language Query Interface (epo) Patents (Class 707/E17.015)
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Publication number: 20090019103Abstract: A method and system for processing a database query is described. One embodiment is a scalable, reconfigurable database query processing system comprising one or more director, user, and performance modules in a configuration that includes shared-nothing behavior of the modules and the distributed processing of primitives for resolving a database query in accordance with a column-oriented database architecture.Type: ApplicationFiled: July 11, 2007Publication date: January 15, 2009Inventors: James Joseph Tommaney, Robert J. Dempsey, Phillip R. Figg, Patrick M. LeBlanc, Jason B. Lowe, John D. Weber, Weidong Zhou
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Publication number: 20090006333Abstract: A user using a chat or instant message, mobile message or email type of interface, for example, an information seeker, can connect via an instant message, mobile message, email or chat type of service provider, for example, an America On-line Instant Messenger (AIM) server. The message server connects the user to a routine that allows the user to utilize his or her service interface in combination with the services provided by the information search system. After connection has been established via the message interface, for example, an instant message is received via the chat process. A query string can then be extracted from the instant message and passed to the search system, which can respond with search results.Type: ApplicationFiled: June 28, 2007Publication date: January 1, 2009Applicant: ChaCha Search, Inc.Inventors: Scott A. Jones, Thomas E. Cooper
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Publication number: 20080313182Abstract: A method of providing a predictive text function in a mobile terminal includes detecting entry of one or more alphanumeric characters via a user interface in a currently-executing first mobile terminal application. At least one character string including the one or more characters is identified among words in a default database associated with the first mobile terminal application and among words in an additional database associated with a second mobile terminal application. The additional database includes at least one word that is not found in the default database. Accordingly, the at least one character string including the one or more characters is displayed via the user interface in the first mobile terminal application. Related devices and computer program products are also discussed.Type: ApplicationFiled: June 28, 2007Publication date: December 18, 2008Inventor: Yojak Harshad Vasa
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Publication number: 20080313159Abstract: A method, system and computer readable medium for providing for providing a function item, such as a key, button, icon, or menu, tied to a user operation in a computer, whereby a single click on the function item in a window or program on a computer screen, or one single selection in a menu in a program, initiates retrieval of name and addresses and/or other person or company related information, while the user works simultaneously in another program, e.g., a word processor. The click on the function item initiates a program connected to the button to search a database or file available on or through the computer, containing the person, company or address related data, in order to look up data corresponding to what the user types, or partly typed, e.g., name and/or address in the word processor, the correct data from the database, data related to the typed data, e.g.Type: ApplicationFiled: July 29, 2008Publication date: December 18, 2008Inventor: Atle Hedloy
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Publication number: 20080306926Abstract: A computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer usable program code for determining aggregate values of health data items from heterogeneously coded databases containing heterogeneously coded medical data. The data, in heterogeneous databases, is queried using a series of semantic layers including i) cascaded asymmetric association tables and ii) semantic search. The heterogeneously coded medical data items are translated into conformal dimensions and denominator files of combinations of disease data are derived. The denominator files of combinations of disease are aggregated based on a mapping of the coded medical and demographic conditions. The data is stored in a target data repository.Type: ApplicationFiled: June 15, 2007Publication date: December 11, 2008Applicant: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATIONInventors: Robert Friedlander, Richard Hennessy, James R. Kraemer
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Publication number: 20080306924Abstract: Provided is a system and method for providing an information retrieval service on a mobile computing device such as a wireless computer or cellular telephone. The user of a mobile computing device provides vocal, visual or textual data to the service provider. The service scans a transmitted data to convert the data into a digital form and the data is converted into a text file. The service provider performs analytical computations on the data in the text file and, using context and preference rules, produces and transmits information of value to the user. In addition, the service may request additional information from the user for the purpose of better servicing the query. A query to the claimed service may be modified based upon configuration information stored with respect to a particular user or based upon previous queries from the particular user.Type: ApplicationFiled: June 5, 2007Publication date: December 11, 2008Inventors: MICHAEL A. PAOLINI, Colin Parris, Omar S. Pena
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Publication number: 20080301129Abstract: A system for indexing unstructured or semi-structured data is disclosed. The system may identify regions within the data, such as “Abstract” or “References”. The system may identify linguistic units such as sentences, noun groups, verb groups. The system may also identify concepts such as companies, people, diseases, amounts, and so forth. The query results may be formatted so that similar results from different documents, or from the same document, are clustered together.Type: ApplicationFiled: June 4, 2008Publication date: December 4, 2008Inventors: David R. Milward, James R. Thomas, Sylvia F. Knight, Roger W. Hale
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Publication number: 20080294736Abstract: The present invention relates to an electronic mail identification system and methods, in particular to a system and methods for sending information corresponding to a keyword to an e-mail address of a user having a telecommunications device, said user registering with the system to indicate that the user solicits receiving said information. A method of sending information is provided to a keyword request from a user of an e-mail identification system to an e-mail address of said user, said user having a telecommunications device, said user not already registered with the system.Type: ApplicationFiled: May 15, 2008Publication date: November 27, 2008Inventor: John Shaw
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Publication number: 20080294637Abstract: The disclosed subject matter consists of a system, a website, and their supporting methods for user-interactive question answering. The system consists of a pattern database to store question/answer patterns for users to select when asking/answering questions. Each question pattern may include or be associated with an answer pattern. The system also includes an asking unit to let the users ask questions with or without question patterns and processes users' questions. The system also includes an answering unit to let the users answer questions with or without answer patterns. The invented method and system can significantly improve users' questioning and answering efficiency and also help machines improve the accuracy of processing the questions and answers and accumulate useful knowledge.Type: ApplicationFiled: December 28, 2006Publication date: November 27, 2008Inventor: Wenyin Liu
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Publication number: 20080288489Abstract: A method for searching patent documents by applying degree of similarity and a system thereof are disclosed. The method for searching patent documents by applying degree of similarity comprises receiving at least one search keyword from a user of the service; searching a document previously stored in a database, by the search keyword; and evaluating a degree of similarity to the search keyword on the document that is searched by the search keyword, wherein the degree of similarity is evaluated by measuring at least one degree among a degree of appearance frequency of the search keyword in the document, a degree of proximity between the search keywords, and a degree of word order between the search keywords. Therefore, patent documents may be searched by arranging the documents according to a degree of similarity to a search keyword, and not according to whether the keyword is included in the patent documents.Type: ApplicationFiled: August 9, 2006Publication date: November 20, 2008Inventor: Jeong-Jin Kim
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Publication number: 20080270343Abstract: Embodiments of the invention provide database integration within an integrated development environment (IDE) tool for displaying database structure and other database information, query editing and execution, and error detection for database statements embedded in program source code. Embodiments of the invention integrate database connectivity and error detection into the IDE tool, thereby potentially reducing the time required for database-aware application development.Type: ApplicationFiled: April 27, 2007Publication date: October 30, 2008Inventors: Stephen Andrew Brodsky, Ardeshir Jamshidi, Rebecca B. Nin, Brian Gerrit Payton, Sonali Surange
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Publication number: 20080249998Abstract: A method, system and article of manufacture for providing natural language support for users running queries against a multilingual database. One embodiment comprises identifying one or more physical values defined by physical data in the multilingual database for a query result associated with an executed query. At least one translation function configured to transform at least a portion of the identified physical values defined in one or more different natural languages into alternative values defined in a selected language is executed. From each executed translation function, a data structure mapping at least a portion of the identified physical values to translated values defined in the selected language is identified and the translated values defining the alternative values defined in the selected language are retrieved from each identified data structure. The query result associated with the executed query including the alternative values defined in the selected language is output.Type: ApplicationFiled: April 6, 2007Publication date: October 9, 2008Inventors: Richard D. Dettinger, Janice Glowacki, Frederick A. Kulack
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Publication number: 20080235205Abstract: A system and method for retrieving and displaying search results by retrieving a user's search results from a database and providing an interface with which the user scrolls through the search results. The system and method approximate a rate at which the user scrolls through the search results based on at least one user action, and retrieves additional search results from the database based on the approximated rate. The system and method display the search results on a display device in predetermined patterns of screen positions in cooperation with the navigation/scroll control interface.Type: ApplicationFiled: February 21, 2007Publication date: September 25, 2008Inventors: Gene S. Fein, Edward Merritt
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Publication number: 20080208837Abstract: Methods and data processing apparatus for normalization of mentions of subcellular entities, such as proteins and/or genes, in a natural language biomedical text document, in which the species of the individual mention of a subcellular entity is determined before an identifier is assigned to the individual mention of a subcellular entity and the identified species is taken into account when assigning an identifier to the said individual mention of a subcellular entity.Type: ApplicationFiled: March 23, 2007Publication date: August 28, 2008Applicants: The University Court of The University of Edinburgh, ITI Scotland LimitedInventor: Xinglong Wang
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Publication number: 20080208840Abstract: Systems and methods for implementing diverse topic phrase extraction are disclosed. According to one implementation, multiple word candidate phrases are extracted from a corpus and weighed. One or more documents are re-weighed to identify less obvious candidate topics using latent semantic analysis (LSA). Phrase diversification is then used to remove redundancy and select informative and distinct topic phrases.Type: ApplicationFiled: September 21, 2007Publication date: August 28, 2008Applicant: Microsoft CorporationInventors: Benyu Zhang, Jilin Chen, Zheng Chen, HuaJun Zeng, Jian Wang
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Publication number: 20080208833Abstract: A book search system and media for generating a book index corresponding to a collection of books and for providing context snippets related to a search string formulated by a user based on the book index are provided. The book index includes a word hash that represents unique words and an offset to a location list that stores locations for each instance of the unique word. The book search system receives the search string from the user, parses the search string to locate phrases and words, and traverses the book index to generate a list of locations for each word or phrase included in the search string. The book search system utilizes a variable-sized container having a maximum size to store subsets of each word or phrase included in the list of locations to generate the context snippets for the search string.Type: ApplicationFiled: February 27, 2007Publication date: August 28, 2008Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATIONInventor: INNOKENTIY GENNADYEVICH BASMOV
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Publication number: 20080154828Abstract: A method for providing a response to a statement of a user, the method includes: receiving user input that comprises a portion of a user statement; selecting, before receiving a whole user statement, an answerable statement response between an answerable statement, multiple answerable statements and a response to an answerable statement; wherein the selecting is responsive to user input and to structured representations of answerable statements answerable by an answering entity; and sending to the user information representative of response to the user statement.Type: ApplicationFiled: December 20, 2007Publication date: June 26, 2008Applicant: Support Machines Ltd.Inventors: Amit Antebi, Hanoch Rahimi
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Publication number: 20080147634Abstract: A user interface is described, having a search box for entering a search query. The search box and other components remain stationary when conducting a search. A toolbox is provided with links to different views for conducting category-specific searches, and the links are editable.Type: ApplicationFiled: December 15, 2006Publication date: June 19, 2008Applicant: IAC Search & Media, Inc.Inventors: Raul G. Diaz, Andy H. Yang, Daniel J. Read
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Publication number: 20080147606Abstract: A user interface is described, having a search box for entering a search query. The search box and other components remain stationary when conducting a search. A toolbox is provided with links to different views for conducting category-specific searches, and the links are editable.Type: ApplicationFiled: December 15, 2006Publication date: June 19, 2008Applicant: IAC Search & Media, Inc.Inventors: Daniel J. Read, Erik T. Collier
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Publication number: 20080133492Abstract: A query language system is provided that includes a query component that specifies operations for one or more items in a data set. An aggregator component identifies one or more keys associated with the data set, the keys are supplied to one or more aggregators that perform direct computations from the keys in order to determine at least one aggregated value for the data set.Type: ApplicationFiled: November 30, 2006Publication date: June 5, 2008Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATIONInventors: Henricus Johannes Maria Meijer, Amanda Silver, Paul A. Vick, Evgueni Zabokritski, Aleksey Tsingauz
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Publication number: 20080133515Abstract: A method and a system for executing correlative services are provided. In the method and the system, an event type corresponding to an input message is determined through semantic analysis. After collecting the necessary execution information of the event type according to the input message, a user database, or by inquiring the user or another system, the system automatically executes various correlative services of the event type. Therefore, the system can help users to execute correlative services more correctly and more efficiently.Type: ApplicationFiled: January 23, 2007Publication date: June 5, 2008Applicant: INDUSTRIAL TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH INSTITUTEInventors: Shih-Chieh Chien, Chih-Chung Kuo, Jui-Hsin Hung
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Publication number: 20080127045Abstract: Disclosed herein are systems and methods providing for autonomous extraction of original natural language strings from source code and insertion of translated strings therein. Some of the examples described herein additionally utilize a database suitable for containing translations of user-viewable material and for accessing that material from developer project sandboxes. Individual developer projects may provide for the extraction of natural-language strings from source code to a shared translations database. Detailed information on various example embodiments of the inventions are provided in the Detailed Description below, and the inventions are defined by the appended claims.Type: ApplicationFiled: September 27, 2006Publication date: May 29, 2008Inventors: David Pratt, David Stones, Adam Friedman, Clinton De Young, Stephen Gibbon, Edwin Ho, Michael E. Sainsbury
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Publication number: 20080109212Abstract: A system and method for producing semantically-rich representations of texts to amplify and sharpen the interpretations of texts. The method relies on the fact that there is a substantial amount of semantic content associated with most text strings that is not explicit in those strings, or in the mere statistical co-occurrence of the strings with other strings, but which is nevertheless extremely relevant to the text. This additional information is used to both sharpen the representations derived directly from the text string, and also to augment the representation with content that, while not explicitly mentioned in the string, is implicit in the text and, if made explicit, can be used to support the performance of text processing applications including document indexing and retrieval, document classification, document routing, document summarization, and document tagging.Type: ApplicationFiled: February 15, 2007Publication date: May 8, 2008Inventors: Michael John Witbrock, David Andrew Schneider, Benjamin Paul Rode, Bjoern Aldag
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Publication number: 20080091671Abstract: Computer Aided Innovation and computer based methods, systems and interfaces is described for analyzing machine readable data repositories such as knowledge databases having text documents, and for generation of new product specifications, for evaluation of these specifications and for the generation of new product designs and products therefrom. Integration of innovation tools with language analysis of a machine readable data repository such as a knowledge database with text documents is described. Language analysis of the data repository, e.g. database or databases, results in a distinct number of, e.g. a list of, properties of a product called property statements being properties to be varied linked to a distinct number, e.g. a list of, functions of the product called function statements. The property statements can be first parts of speech such as adjectives, or adjectival phrases or adjectival statements being definitions of properties of a product.Type: ApplicationFiled: August 31, 2007Publication date: April 17, 2008Inventor: Simon Dewulf
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Publication number: 20080059415Abstract: Improved method of and apparatus for aggregating data elements in multidimensional databases (MDDB). In the preferred embodiment, the apparatus is realized in the form of a high-performance stand-alone (i.e. external) aggregation server which can be plugged-into conventional MOLAP systems to achieve significant improvements in system performance. In accordance with the principles of the present invention, the stand-alone aggregation server contains a scalable MDDB and a high-performance aggregation engine that are integrated into the modular architecture of the aggregation server. The stand-alone aggregation server of the present invention can uniformly distribute data elements among a plurality of processors, for balanced loading and processing, and therefore is highly scalable.Type: ApplicationFiled: August 3, 2007Publication date: March 6, 2008Inventors: Reuven Bakalash, Guy Shaked, Joseph Caspi
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Publication number: 20080052283Abstract: A directed set can be used to establish contexts for linguistic concepts: for example, to aid in answering a question, to refine a query, or even to determine what questions can be answered given certain knowledge. A directed set includes a plurality of elements and chains relating the concepts. One concept is identified as a maximal element. The chains connect the maximal element to each concept in the directed set, and more than one chain can connect the maximal element to any individual concept either directly or through one or more intermediate concepts. A subset of the chains is selected to form a basis for the directed set. Each concept in the directed set is measured to determine how concretely each chain in the basis represents it. These measurements for a single concept form a vector in Euclidean k-space. Distances between these vectors can be used to determine how closely related pairs of concepts are in the directed set.Type: ApplicationFiled: October 30, 2007Publication date: February 28, 2008Applicant: Novell, Inc.Inventors: Delos Jensen, Stephen Carter
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Publication number: 20080033999Abstract: A bioinformatics system and method is provided for integrated processing of biological data. According to one embodiment, the invention provides an interlocking series of target identification, target validation, lead identification, and lead optimization modules in a discovery platform oriented around specific components of the drug discovery process. The discovery platform of the invention utilizes genomic, proteomic, and other biological data stored in structured as well as unstructured databases. According to another embodiment, the invention provides overall platform/architecture with integration approach for searching and processing the data stored in the structured as well as unstructured databases. According to another embodiment, the invention provides a user interface, affording users the ability to access and process tasks for the drug discovery process.Type: ApplicationFiled: December 19, 2006Publication date: February 7, 2008Applicants: VSA CORPORATION, IPXL, Inc.Inventor: Steve GARDNER
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Publication number: 20080016068Abstract: A media-personality information acquiring apparatus includes a program keyword acquiring unit configured to acquire keywords contained in information on a program as program keywords, a program genre determining unit configured to determine whether or not a genre of the program is a predetermined genre, a caption keyword acquiring unit configured to acquire keywords contained in captions of the program as caption keywords when the program genre is the predetermined genre, and a media personality information generating unit configured to generate information on media personalities in the program on the basis of the program keywords or the caption keywords.Type: ApplicationFiled: July 11, 2007Publication date: January 17, 2008Inventors: Tsuyoshi Takagi, Toshiharu Yabe, Motoki Tsunokawa, Akihiro Watanabe
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Publication number: 20080016043Abstract: A relational database management system (RDBMS) for servicing query statements through one or more client machines. The RDBMS comprises a query interface adapted to receive query statements from the client machines. The query handling mechanism (i) receives each request from the query interface, (ii) extracts a set of dimensions associated with the request, (iii) uses the dimensions to retrieve aggregated fact data from a multi-dimensional database (MDDB), and (iv) forwards retrieved aggregated fact data to the query processing mechanism for subsequent processing. When the query processing mechanism determines that servicing of one or more query requests require data stored in the relational tables, then the query processing mechanism automatically routes the requests to the relational data tables, so that data can be accessed from the relational tables and forwarded to the query processing mechanism for use in servicing the requests, in a manner transparent to the client machine.Type: ApplicationFiled: July 6, 2007Publication date: January 17, 2008Inventors: Reuven Bakalash, Guy Shaked, Joseph Caspi
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Publication number: 20080005094Abstract: A method and apparatus for identifying the focus of a document, in a natural language processing application, the natural language processing application comprising a hierarchical concept tree having a plurality of nodes, each node being associated with a term, the method comprising the steps of: mapping an input document to nodes in a concept tree to determine a number of occurrences of a term in the input document which also occur at a node in the concept tree; weighting each node in the concept tree, depending on the determined number of occurrences of the term in the input document and a determined value assigned to each node in the concept tree; traversing the concept tree to identify a heaviest weighted path, in dependence on the weighting of each node in the concept tree; and determining the focus of the input document by identifying a node having the heaviest weight along the most heavily-weighted path.Type: ApplicationFiled: April 4, 2007Publication date: January 3, 2008Inventors: Kevin Cunnane, Emma Curran, Jan Macek, Daniel McCloskey, Brendan Moorehead, Ross Shannon, Alexander Troussov
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Publication number: 20070294233Abstract: A structured natural language query and knowledge system is provided to allow a user who lacks programming skills to enter a database query or a rule in the form of a structured natural language sentence. The scope of the sentence is preferably defined by an improved object relational query language, an object relational algebra, or both. Command and conditions that appear in natural language form are defined with corresponding formal query texts. A user is prompted to compose a structured natural language sentence using the defined commands and conditions. The user-selected command and its arguments appear as the verb phrase of a structured natural language sentence. The user-selected conditions and their parameters appear as the adjective phrases of the sentence. The sentence is parsed and changed into a translated formal query text for formal database query and rule processing.Type: ApplicationFiled: August 28, 2007Publication date: December 20, 2007Applicant: BIOMEDICAL OBJECTS, INC.Inventors: Phillip Sheu, Atsushi Kitazawa
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Publication number: 20070288444Abstract: A system and method for processing a web-based query is provided. The system comprises a web server for transmitting a web form having a text field box for entering a natural language query, and a language analysis server for extracting concepts from the natural language query and classifying the natural language query into predefined categories via computed match scores based upon the extracted concepts and information contained within an adaptable knowledge base. In various embodiments, the web server selectively transmits either a resource page or a confirmation page to the client, based upon the match scores. The resource page may comprise at least one suggested response corresponding to at least one predefined category. The language analysis server may adapt the knowledge base in accordance with a communicative action received from the client after the resource page is transmitted.Type: ApplicationFiled: August 23, 2007Publication date: December 13, 2007Applicant: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATIONInventors: Yoram Nelken, Randy Jessee, Steve Kirshner