Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that uses faceted metadata to facilitate navigation through information resources. During operation, the system receives a query from a client at a server. The system then performs the query on metadata, wherein the metadata contains facets that describe characteristics of the information resources. While performing the query, the system generates results that identify information resources that satisfy the query. Next, the system constructs a response containing the results, the query, and suggestions on how to refine the query. The system then sends the response to the client, thereby allowing the client to refine the query. In this way, the client and server can work together in a stateless manner to refine the query without having to maintain state information about the query on the server.

Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that uses faceted metadata to facilitate navigation through information resources. During operation, the system receives a query from a client at a server. The system then performs the query on metadata, wherein the metadata contains facets that describe characteristics of the information resources. While performing the query, the system generates results that identify information resources that satisfy the query. Next, the system constructs a response containing the results, the query, and suggestions on how to refine the query. The system then sends the response to the client, thereby allowing the client to refine the query. In this way, the client and server can work together in a stateless manner to refine the query without having to maintain state information about the query on the server.

Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention provides a system dynamically selects a content option from a plurality of content options in order to display the content option to a user who is browsing through a web site. The system operates by receiving a request for content from a web browser that is being operated by the user. In response to this request, the system calculates a probability distribution across the plurality of content options that can be sent to the web browser, and then selects the content option at random from the plurality of content options based upon the calculated probability distribution. Next, the system sends the selected content option to the web browser and then allows the web browser to display the selected content option to the user of the web browser. The system then receives a response to the selected content option from the user of the web browser, and uses this response to update a future probability distribution across the plurality of content options.

Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention provides a system for producing personalized web site content to be presented to a user of a content provider web site based upon information gathered regarding the user. The system operates by receiving data sent from a remote browser to a personalization server. This data is sent by a web page on the remote browser and includes an identifier for the user. This web page was previously sent from the content provider web site to the remote browser while the remote browser was navigating through the content provider web site. The personalization server uses the identifier to look up information related to the user in a database associated with the personalization server. This information is used to produce personalized web site content for the user based upon the interests of the user. For example, personalized web site content can include hypertext markup language (HTML) code, images or navigational options to other web locations.

Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention provides a system for making predictions about data records from an incoming stream of data records. This system operates by discovering predictive relationships in an online manner between fields in records in the incoming stream of data records as the incoming stream of data records is received. These predictive relationships can used to predict values in fields based on other field values in the same record. This facilitates cleansing of data by allowing transaction values to be validated based upon predictions made from other field values in the same transaction record. It also allows missing field values to be predicted based upon the other field values. A variation of this embodiment provides for filtering transaction records based upon discovered predictive relationships and routing the transaction records to other servers in real-time.

Abstract: A software agent which performs autonomous learning in a real-world environment, implemented in a case-based reasoning system and coupled to a sensor for gathering information from, and to an effector for manipulating, its environment. A case base which is tuned in response to an evaluation of how well the agent is operating in that environment. A memory of cases, the contents of that memory being determined by a genetic technique, including producing new cases which may never have been encountered in the environment, evaluating cases in response to a history of previous matches and in response to an external stimulus, and selecting a limited set of cases which provides a preferred model of the environment.

Abstract: A software agent which performs autonomous learning in a real-world environment, implemented in a case-based reasoning system and coupled to a sensor for gathering information from, and to an effector for manipulating, its environment. A case base which is tuned in response to an evaluation of how well the agent is operating in that environment. A memory of cases, the contents of that memory being determined by a genetic technique, including producing new cases which may never have been encountered in the environment, evaluating cases in response to a history of previous matches and in response to an external stimulus, and selecting a limited set of cases which provides a preferred model of the environment.

Abstract: A case-based reasoning system which is smoothly integrated into a rule-based reasoning system, thus coordinating case-based reasoning techniques and rule-based reasoning techniques in a unified automated reasoning system, in which an automated processor may proceed by inferential reasoning on the facts of the problem and the cases by means of rule-based reasoning techniques or based on procedural directives supplied by a human programmer, and may select the case which is the best match for the problem, but may act differently from the precise action prescribed for that case. A technique for dynamically adapting the case base to the problems which the automated reasoning system encounters, in which the processor may create additional cases which may exemplify the problem or which may be useful for future problems, or may remove cases from the case base which it determines from experience are poor or obsolete.